The answer to the question, “Why do Poles dislike banks?” may seem obvious. According to the CEO of one of Poland’s major banks, this is not necessarily the case, and may actually be partly due to anti-Semitism.
On Tuesday, social media users were drawn to a story printed in the Polish financial industry magazine Puls Biznesu, which interviewed Przemek Gdański, president of BNP Paribas Bank Polska.
The article, entitled, “Gdański: Why Poles do not like banks,” proved controversial due Gdański putting forward one reason that Poles not liking banks is due to anti-Semitism.
The interview is preceded by a statement from the journalist Eugeniusz Twaróg, who introduces the interview subject: “Poles’ negative associations, including with usury and paying installments, plus a lack of basic knowledge about how the banking business works, are a recipe for a serious image crisis for the entire sector. Przemek Gdański, president of BNP Paribas Bank Polska, diagnoses and seeks advice.”
Among the issues explored are high profits and high bonuses for banking management. However, Gdański then moves on to one of the reasons he believes is behind Poles having little love for banks.
“I haven’t finished listing the reasons yet. I’ll move on to the second, more controversial one. In my opinion, the antipathy to banks is rooted in anti-Semitism. Historically, money lending, in some periods called usury, was done by Jews. You went to a Jew and borrowed at interest when you needed it, even if you didn’t like him, because there were no other ways to borrow money,” said the banking president.
However, this may be actually taking one stereotype, that Jews are invovled in banking, and morphing it into another stereotype, which is that Poles are inherently anti-Semtitic. There was a sharp war of words, for instance, with Israel and Poland back in 2019, which involved former Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz stating that Poles “imbibe anti-Semitism in their mothers’ milk.” It did not help afterwards that op-eds appeared in the Israeli press affirming that this statement is true.
The Polish publication Do Rzeczy writes that, in light of the banker’s statement, “it is worth recalling that the average interest rate on new loans in Poland is the highest in Europe. Moreover, according to data from the Central Statistical Office, in 2024 the net financial result of banks amounted to PLN 42,001 million, which means an increase of 51.9 percent year-on-year.”
The balance sheet total of banks at the end of 2024 was 10.8 percent higher than a year earlier and amounted to PLN 3.317 trillion, or €773 billion.
