Twelve Million Depositors, None That MattersWide moat

PKO Bank Polski (PKO) — moat facet

Not one of PKO's twelve and a half million customers could move the funding cost by leaving.

PKO holds 460 722 million złoty of customer deposits from 12 460 thousand customers1, and no individual among them is material.

Customers, and the funding they provide12,6mCustomers (millions)460,7Deposits (zl bn)About 36 600 zł of deposits per customer - nobody large enough to negotiate
Not one of twelve and a half million customers could move the funding cost by leaving. That is genuine diversification of name, and none of exposure.

Set against the concentrations elsewhere in this collection — CoreWeave at 67% of revenue from one customer, Nvidia at 22% — this is the opposite extreme, and for a bank it is a genuine strength: deposit funding that cannot walk out in a single decision is the difference between a stable institution and a fragile one.

The exposures are nonetheless correlated in every way that matters. These are Polish households and businesses with Polish incomes, and a domestic downturn reaches the deposits, the loan book and the fee income simultaneously.

The comfort is in the structure of the funding rather than its diversity. Deposits of 460 722 million against financing of 315 953 million2 means PKO does not depend on wholesale markets to fund its lending — the single most common way banks fail.

The concentration that does exist in this business sits on the other side of the balance sheet entirely — in a single country's economy, a single currency, and a single government that in 2026 raised the tax rate on bank profits from 19% to 30%3. A customer table would show none of it.

Watch deposits against financing. A ratio that stays comfortably above one means the bank funds itself from its customers. Financing growing faster than deposits — 13,9% against 12,9% in the first half of 20264 — is the direction to keep an eye on, though the gap is small and the starting position is strong.

Moat trajectory: Widening

12,46 million customers rising to 12,6 million by mid-2026, each too small to negotiate. The diversification improves as the base grows.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Customers by mid-2026
12,6 million, still rising

The base grew again in the first half of 2026. Diversification of this kind improves as the number rises, and the whole of it is exposed to one economy, one currency and one rate cycle - which is why the count is reassuring about concentration and says nothing about correlation.

Source: PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for H1 2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedPKO holds 460 722 million złoty of customer deposits from 12 460 thousand customers, and no individual among them is material.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for 2025 - the customer base (12 460 thousand customers against 11 120 thousand five years earlier, 9 764 thousand current accounts, and more than 8,7 million active installations of the IKO mobile application) — FY2021-FY2025 · publ. 12 March 2026 · source ↗
  2. ReportedDeposits of 460 722 million against financing of 315 953 million means PKO does not depend on wholesale markets to fund its lending — the single most common way banks fail.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for 2025 - the balance sheet (total assets of 583 079m złoty against 418 086m in 2021, amounts due to customers of 460 722m, financing granted to customers of 315 953m, and total equity of 58 503m) — FY2025 · publ. 12 March 2026 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe concentration that does exist in this business sits on the other side of the balance sheet entirely — in a single country's economy, a single currency, and a single government that in 2026 raised the tax rate on bank profits from 19%...
    Polish corporate income tax on banks - the amendment signed by the president on 27 November 2025 and in force from 1 January 2026, raising the rate on commercial banks from 19% to 30% for 2026, then 26% in 2027 and 23% in 2028, with the asset-based bank levy falling from 0,0366% to 0,0329% and 0,0293%; framed by the finance ministry as social justice and as financing defence needs, criticised by the sector as discriminatory, and estimated to raise about 6,5bn złoty in 2026 — 2026-2028 · publ. November 2025 · source ↗
  4. ReportedFinancing growing faster than deposits — 13,9% against 12,9% in the first half of 2026 — is the direction to keep an eye on, though the gap is small and the starting position is strong.
    PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors' Report for the six months ended 30 June 2026, published with reviewed financial statements (profit before tax of 8 319m złoty up 19,9%, income tax of 3 029m up 67,4%, net profit of 5 290m up 3,1%, return on equity of 19,3%, cost-to-income of 31,4%, interest margin of 4,47% against 4,91%, cost of risk of 0,29%, total assets past 608 448m, 12,6 million customers, common equity tier 1 of 15,55%, and a further 685m złoty of convertible-currency legal risk) — H1 2026 · publ. 13 August 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 24, 2026