The end of the WIBOR era in loans. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority sets strict deadlines for banks

The reform of reference indices in 2026 has entered a key stage, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority expects banks to move away from the WIBOR indicator – said Marcin Mikołajczyk, deputy chairman of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. He said he expects the sector to be active on the long-term debt instruments issuance market.

“2026, according to the road map, is a key year for this reform. (…) The Polish Financial Supervision Authority expects the financial sector, and in particular the banking sector, to move away from the WIBOR indicator in subsequent periods and cessation of production, in particular directed to retail customers, i.e. consumers,” Mikołajczyk said at the Banking Forum.

He said that the POLSTR compound rate is expected to be introduced into the offer of banking products, including housing loans (from the second quarter of 2026 at the latest), the development of TN and 2W terms will be discontinued, and end dates for ON terms (October 2026) and 1Y (December 2026) are expected.

In November, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority proposed changes in determining the WFD ratio for banks. It is planned to recalibrate the initial expected level of WFD to 20%.

We do not change the philosophy of the recommendation itself and the recalibration of the indicator is mainly due to the fact that we are removing the surplus of own funds. So this is still a very strong incentive to issue long-term instruments, said Mikołajczyk.

“We still think this is the optimal instrumentwhich should fill the gap of mismatched dates and we will encourage and stimulate the banking market to be active in this area,” he added.

He said that in 2025, the value of issued covered bonds reached PLN 7.7 billion (8 issues), including the first issue addressed to retail investors in nearly 100 years.

“We hope that this activity will continue,” Mikołajczyk said. (PAP Business)

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