Vice-President of Santander Bank Polska Andrzej Burliga and member of the bank's management board Wojciech Skalski resigned from their positions, effective as of April 14, 2026, at the end of the day, the bank announced in a statement.
Wojciech Skalski is a member of the management board in charge of the accounting and financial control department, and Andrzej Burliga is vice-president in charge of the digital transformation department.
It is difficult not to connect this information with the takeover of the bank by the Austrian Erste Group. The new owner usually introduces his own management team, so the existing members can also look around the market intensively.
The current president is Michał Gajewski, who has been managing the bank since 2016, when the bank was called BZ WBK. The management board also includes: Artur Głembocki (since 2023), Lech Gałkowski (since 2021), Magdalena Proga-Stępień (since 2023, but in the bank since 2021), chief economist Maciej Reluga (since 2017, but in the bank since 2002), Dorota Strojkowska (since 2017, but in the bank since 2005) and Magdalena Szwarc-Bakuła (since 2025, but with the bank since 2016).
Rebranding coming soon
On the weekend of April 24-26, 2026, Santander Bank Polska plans to start rebranding, i.e. changing the brand to Erste Bank Polska.
For 49 percent shares, Austrians paid EUR 6.8 billion in January and EUR 0.2 billion for half of the shares of Santander TFI. Spain's Santander, the previous main shareholder of the third bank in Poland in terms of assets, retained a 9.7% stake. bank shares.
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The bank said that the process will not require additional actions on the part of customers – all contracts will remain in force, and account, card, PIN and hotline numbers will not change. A new logo will appear on branches and ATMs.
The website address will change to www.erste.pl, and the application for individual customers will change its name to Erste. New names of selected products and services will appear.
