Letter from Michał Gajewski – CEO of Santander Bank Polska S.A.

2024 was a year of fast growth for Santander Bank Polska Group. We continued to fulfill our purpose of helping people and businesses prosper. Our financial position, both in terms of capital and liquidity, remains strong and stable, and our profits provide the base for further work on the Group’s strategic and business goals.

We have embarked on a new strategy for 2024–2026: ”We Help You Achieve More”. The strategy has three key pillars: Total Experience, Total Digitalisation and Total Responsibility. We seek to build the best experience and create positive emotions among customers and employees. We also strive to accelerate our digital transformation. We act in accordance with our values, the highest ethical standards, and sustainable development goals. We are confident that this is the best way to maximise shareholder value and achieve our ambition of being the most profitable bank in Poland. We trust that customer satisfaction and employee engagement are key to our financial success.

The presented achievements prove that we are on the right strategic path. We intend to stay the course in the following years to reach our ambitious goals. We can already boast good customer and employee satisfaction ratings as measured by NPS and eNPS. Moreover, we successfully leverage our capital strength to support our customers, also in their energy transition. This way, we contribute to positive social and economic change.

But there is more than that. Investments in cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and process automation position us as an innovation leader in the financial sector who effectively responds to the fast-evolving market needs. Importantly, our approach to artificial intelligence is built on responsibility, transparency and security. This allows us to continuously build and maintain the trust of our customers.

2024 was a breakthrough year in terms of progressing our sustainability agenda. Our intention was to ensure that we implement the highest standards for all our stakeholders – customers, employees, shareholders and local communities.

We have increased cash and mortgage lending volumes in the retail segment. We have accelerated digital transformation, recording double-digit growth in the number of mobile app users and record sales in the digital channel. We have launched new products, including a personalised deposit offer, Visa Bonus credit card and a simple eLoan.

Santander Bank Polska puts a high premium on maintaining superior relationships with business, corporate and private banking customers. Our ambition is to be their bank of first choice and to achieve the highest market share.

Our relationship-building and acquisition activities have already resulted in satisfactory growth rates with record business volumes, which were growing much faster than the market last year.

2024 was also a very successful year for our subsidiaries. Santander Consumer Bank has consistently pursued its business strategy to become one of the leaders in durables and mobility financing in the Polish consumer finance market. It improved its effectiveness and implemented modern solutions that are important for customers, partners and employees. At the same time, it deployed technologies and IT solutions supporting digital transformation processes.

With its 25-year market experience, Santander TFI gained the trust of nearly 243k customers. As a result, its assets under management increased to more than PLN 24bn.

Another Group member, Santander Factoring, implemented a number of business and technology changes conducive to further transformation and business expansion. In turn, Santander Leasing, which also celebrated its 25th anniversary, invariably helped customers both in business development and in sustainable transformation. In effect, every second electric car financed by the subsidiary benefited from the government’s ”My Electric Car” programme, and its portfolio of “green assets” grew to all-time highs.

We are also proud of our many social activities, including educational projects – Finansiaki and Santander Open Academy – and cybersecurity initiatives. The Santander Bank Polska Foundation together with our customers donated more than PLN 1.5m to pediatric oncology and PLN 1.5m to help flood victims in the south of Poland.

Our efforts earned us high ratings in NPS surveys and in the Euromoney Global Private Banking 2024 Awards ranking. We were recognised as: Golden Bank, Poland’s Best International Private Bank, Poland’s Best for Next-Gen and Poland’s Best for Investment Research. For the fourth time in a row, we also won the title of The Best Bank for Companies in the prestigious ranking by Forbes. In addition, we were awarded as The Best Bank for SMEs by Euromoney.

In 2025, we will relentlessly pursue our strategy and mission. We will be actively engaged in the technological evolution, implementing innovations that lie at the core of modern banking. Sustainability, including the financing of economic transformation, will be high on our agenda. We will also adapt our offering to meet the growing expectations of our customers, focusing on convenience, security and customer experience. I believe that these efforts will cement our role as an organisation that shapes the future of banking in Poland and sets the highest market standards.

I would like to thank our shareholders and customers for their trust, and our employees for their professionalism and commitment.