Poland is enjoying great success as a location for back office operations of Swiss big banks. But there are further reasons for why the financial market of the Eastern European country is closely monitoring developments in Switzerland.
The two Polish cities of Krakow and Wroclaw evoke few positive thoughts among Swiss-based staff at UBS and Credit Suisse (CS). Both big Swiss banks moved large numbers of jobs to the two cities in the past years – UBS alone relocated 4,000 IT-jobs to low-cost countries in 2015 and 2016.
The local business promoters for obvious reasons love Swiss banking. But the Swiss financial market isn’t only inspiring as an active outsourcer to Poland. It also acts as a beacon for the local fintech industry.
Low Taxes and Laissez-Faire
The new white paper on Poland’s chances as a fintech hub – «Polish Fintech Market – Barriers and Opportunities» mentions Switzerland as an example for how to best develop a hub for new financial-market technology.
«The way in which Switzerland manages innovation is an invaluable source of inspiration for Poland,» the report authors say. They also highlight factors that aren’t universally popular in Switzerland itself: Low taxes and «the Swiss-specific laissez-faire policy» helped create conditions conducive to the development of a new industry.
Catching Up
Poland aims to catch up – even if the white paper acknowledges that Switzerland (and other countries as well) are way ahead in their development. Poland is No. 45 in the Global Financial Center Index of the most competitive financial centers. In the Global Innovation Index, Poland ranks 39th.
Still, the country has had its first success stories. Cinkciarz, a currency platform, as well as Finanteq and PayU, developers of digital wallets.
MBank, a Polish unit of Commerzbank, is also frequently mentioned as a digital bank with great potential. The country for sure is hungry for a bigger share of the global financial market.
