Europe's economic competitiveness and resilience are becoming not only a public priority, but a fundamental social need – said Ludmiła Falak-Cyniak, vice-president of the management board of PKO BP, during the panel “Securing Growth – Innovating to Compete” at the IIF European Summit 2026.
Falak-Cyniak pointed out that strategic areas – such as defense, energy security and digital transformation – “they are not budget programs, but the infrastructure of the functioning of our societies“.
In the opinion of PKO Bank Polski, none of these goals will be achieved without the active participation of the private sector and harnessing the enormous savings potential of households.
Polish households have accumulated assets of value PLN 3.8 trillionbut a significant part of them remains on deposits, which means “untapped potential for private capital accumulation“. According to Eurostat data, current deposits constitute nearly one third of the GDP of EU countries – in Germany, Sweden and Italy they amount to over 40%.
A change in regulatory culture is needed – from overprotection to responsible risk enablement
Ludmiła Falak-Cyniak assessed that the current supervisory approach – especially the method of applying the adequacy test under MiFID II – discourages citizens from participating in the capital market.
“Today's system leads to exclusion – and this is not real protection” she pointed out.
In her opinion, for Europe to effectively finance its strategic transformation – in defence, energy and technology – it must unlock access to private savings and “switch from excessive protection to effective protection.”
“If we want to be regulatory safe and capital competitive, we must measure risk where it really exists – at the level of the entire portfolio, not a single transaction.” she said.
Source: PKO BP
