The PiS party intends to call a special commission, that would examine the activity of the National Bank of Poland, the Banking Supervision Commission, and the General Inspectorate of Banking Supervision Commission, during the period of 1989 - 2006. Members of the governing conservative party and allies (Samoobrona and LPR) attacked the head of the central bank, Leszek Balcerowicz, in the Polish parliament on Friday, over his decision to exclude deputy finance minister Cezary Mech from a meeting of the Banking Supervisory Commission on March 8 and the decision to call an extraordinary meeting of the Banking Supervision Commission to vote on the Unicredito case on March 15.
In reaction, the European Central Bank issued an unusually strong statement, defending the central bank's role in Poland. The ECB specifically criticised planned changes to Polish banking supervision laws, stating that adding the changes could undermine Polish ambitions to join the euro currency zone.
We do not expect any trading impact from the continuing political furor, surrounding the Unicredito case. We see the special political commission as a pointless exercise from the market's point of view and essentially as a face-saving exercise on the part of the government, having lost the important battle. Note that the commission is intended to examine all of the banking privatisations during the 1990’s. We reiterate our Buy rating on Bank Pekao, with a fair value estimate of PLN 208.