2026-01-23 18:11
publication
2026-01-23 18:11
On Friday, the Sejm passed an act that concerns, among others: forced restructuring of banks or immediate transfers in euro. Payments in the EU currency are to be offered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and cannot be more expensive than transfers in national currency.
413 MPs voted for the adoption of the act, 1 was against and 19 abstained. Now the bill will go to the Senate.
The Act includes, among others: provisions implementing the regulation that regulates instant transfers in the EU, the main goal of which is to popularize instant payments in euro by imposing an obligation on payment service providers to offer these payments 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The implementation of these regulations will ensure that non-bank providers (e.g. payment institutions and electronic money institutions) will gain direct access to designated payment systems.
The act includes provisions introducing a “verification visit” carried out by authorized employees of the Bank Guarantee Fund, which is intended to improve the possibility of carrying out compulsory restructuring, i.e. the so-called resolution.
Another solution included in the Act introduces technical changes in the mechanism for determining and deducting MREL (minimum requirement for own funds and eligible liabilities) in the relations of subsidiaries and banking groups and, in principle, abolishes the need to determine MREL for entities that are scheduled for liquidation as part of bankruptcy proceedings and are not subject to compulsory restructuring.
At the same time, changes resulting from the BFG's experience related to resolution processes already carried out “in relation to banks with different specificities” were recorded. These experiences allowed “to identify areas in which national regulations require supplementation, clarification or ordering to enable more efficient functioning of the BFG as a resolution body and resolution processes.”
Resolution is a method of dealing with banks (or other financial institutions, e.g. insurers) at risk of bankruptcy, in which – as a rule – public aid is eliminated and the effects of poor management of the entity are borne by its shareholders and creditors. (PAP)
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