English
Obserwator Finansowy features views and analysis of economy in Poland and other countries, written by some of the best journalists, economists and analysts. Our mission is to share knowledge of economics and financial markets in the world.
Obserwator Finansowy is a project under aegis of the Poland’s central bank, Narodowy Bank Polski. We have published thousands of articles about the Polish and global economy. Our journalists have conducted hundreds of interviews with Nobel laureates, distinguished economists, business leaders and politicians with views across the political spectrum.
In this section you can find selected articles in English.
Banks to face competition following payment deregulation
Grzegorz HansenApproximately 10 million non-cash transactions are carried out daily in Poland and more than half of them are conducted without the use of payment cards. They are performed with the participation of banks via the National...
Who will provide a bird’s-eye view of the financial sector?
Jacek RamotowskiMacroprudential supervision is the copestone of the global financial safety that has emerged as a lesson learned from the crisis. Institutions responsible for carrying out macroprudential supervision have been established in...
Bank regulations spell trouble for the economy
Jacek RamotowskiAnti-crisis regulations of the banking sector have a dark side. Bankers claim they can slow down growth due to reduced lending as well as force banks to transfer business from one country to another. And what will Poland do...
Warning signs appear as Poland’s bond rally shows no signs of running out of steam
Jan CieńskiNicholas Spiro of Spiro Sovereign Strategy weighs his words carefully when asked for his assessment of the current bull market for Polish bonds. He steers clear of the word “bubble” but then settles on a less scary term...
Hungarian government wants to tap private bank accounts in Switzerland
Zsolt ZsebesiThe Hungarian government approached the Swiss government with a request for information concerning Hungarian citizens’ bank accounts in Switzerland. Budapest would like to have a bilateral agreement granting it access to...
The patriarch of Wall Street – energetic advocate of prudence
Jan CipiurNew York has an inhabitant who has taken to his heart the birthday wishes of “may you live long years”. Irving Kahn is 107 years old. He works every day, from Monday to Friday, in his office in Manhattan where he manages...
Billions for investment projects which are difficult to launch or finalize
Witold GadomskiCelowa Spółka Inwestycyjna (CSI), a special purpose company, is a provisional name of the company which is being created for the implementation of the government’s Polish Investments programme. Together with Bank...
Banks slowing down?
Grzegorz BrudzińskiThe net profit of banks after nine months of the year exceeded PLN 11 billion, according to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). It is PLN 100 million less than the result after three quarters of the record year...
Banks must not threaten their countries
Marek Pielach“Large banks dictate to their governments what to do, and banks in turn are too strictly steered by regulators, who want to influence banking products, but are not interested in the systemic risk generated by these banks....
Audit to reveal Credit Union secrets
Krzysztof MaciejewskiSeveral days ago, Credit Unions (Polish: SKOK) have been covered by supervision of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA). Within the next three months, Unions’ financial statements will be examined by statutory...