Banks are no longer competing with big tech companies and fintechs solely on the price of financial products. Increasingly, the key battleground is presence in the customer’s everyday life — in an app, during online shopping, when paying for services, or when choosing a car or a home. As Szymon Midera, CEO of PKO Bank Polski, emphasises, the banking sector must move from transactional banking to contextual banking, meaning that banks should be present wherever customers make purchasing decisions. This is particularly important for Generation Z.
“The battle between banks and big tech companies has many faces. It is already having a very strong impact on the market and will continue to do so over the next few years,” Szymon Midera told Newseria. “Some analysts believe that neobanks and fintechs will profoundly reshape this market within the next few years, just as they have done over the past four or five years in the conservative UK market, where today they are leaders.”
Pressure from fintechs and big tech companies is growing as customer needs change and expectations rise that financial services should be simple, immediate and available from a smartphone. According to data from the Polish Bank Association, mobile banking remains one of the fastest-growing channels of contact with banks. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the number of active users of banking mobile applications increased by 14% year on year, reaching 27.1 million. The group of customers using only a mobile app grew by 4% quarter on quarter and reached almost 21 million. This group accounted for 77% of all active mobile banking users. The figures show that, for many people, the smartphone is becoming the primary place for managing finances.
According to the CEO of PKO BP, banks in Poland have stronger foundations for defending their market position than some institutions in Western markets. Their advantages include trust, strong balance sheets, brand recognition and customer relationships.
“We have a much greater chance of preserving as much market share as possible because we are not giving up. We are investing in building value for customers, in their experience, UX and applications,” Szymon Midera said. “Apart from the fact that banks today have strong balance sheets, a good level of trust and reputation, which is extremely important, they must do everything they can to move from transactional banking to contextual banking and enter the model of everyday banking, or daily banking.”
PKO Bank Polski is pursuing this direction, among other things, through the development of its IKO app and partnerships with companies operating outside the traditional financial sector. The bank is expanding cooperation with Allegro and Żabka, building a mobility ecosystem based on the Automarket platform and working on solutions related to the real estate market. Cooperation with Allegro includes, among other things, integration of a bank account with the shopping platform and the Allegro Klik service, which enables payments without leaving the Allegro app. The partnership with Żappka Pay, in turn, is intended to introduce a consumer finance offer into the retail chain’s app — a card with a limit and the option to defer payment.
“Our goal today is to enter the shopping context and build partnerships in order to be the bank closest to the customer, where the customer makes transactions and where they need us most,” the CEO of PKO BP stressed.
He added that a bank capable of quickly and securely financing a purchase at the place where it is made can build a stronger relationship than an institution present only in traditional channels. That is why banks must stop thinking solely in terms of selling financial products.
“Banks are able to defend their position on one condition: that they actively prepare strategies for acquiring and activating their customers,” Szymon Midera said. “If they understand that the greatest value lies in the customer, their needs, a very simple onboarding process or product purchase within an app, and if they continue to strengthen a high level of trust, they have a chance to compete with these challengers.”
As he points out, fintechs often have advantages in simplicity, speed of operation, global scale and attractive pricing. At the same time, their relationship with the customer can be shallower and more transactional.
“So we have many strengths, but we must actively manage them and move beyond the standard in which we have been operating,” the CEO of PKO BP said. “Banks have no choice. They must create these ecosystems and partnerships, invest in new business models, deeply rebuild their applications and strive to make them as simple as possible.”
Young customers, including Generation Z, are a particularly demanding group. These are people accustomed to simple, intuitive purchasing processes in e-commerce, streaming and social media apps. They expect a similar experience from their bank: fast access to services, a clear interface and as few steps as possible.
“Gen Z primarily wants to have everything at their fingertips and online. They have a lot of experience with purchasing processes that are very simple, so banks also need to rebuild them and personalise their applications for this segment,” Szymon Midera said. “Simplicity of products, experiences and processes is absolutely critical for young people. They are not able to go through processes built in the 1990s.”
Today, most banks have one universal app for all customer segments. Both market demand and technological capabilities should encourage them to look for more personalised solutions. As the expert emphasises, PKO BP is also investing in this area by transforming its IKO app. The bank wants the app to be not only a tool for checking balances or making transfers, but a centre for everyday services.
“We are launching many simple functions in the app that customers need and that enable everyday banking, such as parking payments, motorway tolls, cinema tickets, airline tickets, travel, press, the purchase of Treasury bonds, the purchase of gold and many other things that make the number of interactions with PKO Bank Polski’s app higher than the market average,” the bank’s CEO said during an interview at the Polish Economic Congress.
