We prefer to pay by phone in Europe. Poland is ahead of the West in mobile banking

The number of mobile and online transactions in Poland is the highest in the European Union – according to a report by Deloitte and Future Finance Poland published on Wednesday. In terms of the number of startups valued at more than USD 1 billion, Poland ranks seventh in the EU.

“Poland has a strong position among the largest financial markets in the European Union, which is confirmed by both sectoral data and comparative results covering member states. In the analysis of thirteen indicators, the country leads in the CEE region in six categories. High positions concern, among others, the scale of employment: 466,000 people worked in financial and insurance institutions last year, which puts Poland in fourth place in the EU – just behind Germany, France and Italy,” we read in the “EU Financial” report published on Wednesday. Centers Power Index”, prepared by the consulting company Deloitte in cooperation with Future Finance Poland.

The report also indicates the amount of added value generated by financial institutions. In this respect, Poland ranks sixth among the analyzed countries. Another advantage of our country is the rapid implementation of modern mobile solutions.

The land of Blik and startups

“According to the ranking, the area of innovation is one of Poland's greatest assets – in this sub-index it is behind Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy. The country ranks first in the European Union in terms of the number of mobile and online transactions, and the BLIK system itself handled 2.4 billion such operations in 2024. Additionally, Poland is in the top ten EU countries (seventh place) in terms of the number of so-called “unicorns”, i.e. startups valued at at least USD 1 billion,” the report stated.

Employment: just behind Germany and France

It emphasized that the Polish financial market operates in the environment of one of the most open economies in the European Union, as the value of trade reaches almost 100 percent. GDP (according to World Bank data). According to the authors of the report, in such an environment, knowledge-based services have grown particularly rapidly in the last decade, covering both professional and IT activities, and this has also created favorable conditions for the development of financial services.

“The value of this segment increased by 244% during this time, which is the fifth result in the EU in terms of growth rate. At the same time, Poland remains the country with the largest employment in foreign financial and insurance institutions, which employ a total of 130,000 people, strengthening the role of this market as an important operational base for entities operating on markets throughout the Community,” we read in the report.

However, the authors of the study assessed that although the Polish financial sector remains one of the largest in the EU, its ability to support enterprises is smaller than in comparable Western European economies.

“The most important source of this difference is the ratio of loans granted to GDP, which has been systematically decreasing since 2015. The scale of the corporate debt market also remains limited, and Poland ranks fifteenth in the EU in this respect. Similarly, the size of written premiums indicates that the insurance sector is smaller than in countries with a similar market size,” the report wrote.

The “EU Financial Centers Power Index” was prepared by Deloitte in cooperation with the Future Finance Poland foundation. It covers four areas of the functioning of financial markets: the size of the financial sector, financing of the economy, financial innovations and internationalization.

The analysis covers thirteen indicators, including employment in the financial sector, the added value of the financial sector, the volume of bank credit to the private sector, the capitalization of listed companies, the value of corporate bonds, the value of written premiums, the number of mobile and online transactions, the number of fintechs, the number of unicorns, the value of venture capital investments, the value of exports of financial services, the value of exports of insurance services, and employment in foreign financial institutions. (PAP)

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