Poland's Ministry of Finance reported that the Council of Ministers has adopted a draft bill amending the legal framework for cooperative banks, their associations and associating banks, with the stated aim of organising sector rules, strengthening stable operation and reducing administrative and financial burdens. The draft also seeks to speed up assistance for cooperative banks that require support and responds to proposals from the cooperative banking sector. Key changes include simplifying amendments to association agreements by removing the need to sign an annex with each affiliated bank, and abolishing the obligation to provide the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) with information on loans, guarantees and sureties granted to shareholders for five years after membership ends, as well as the related record-retention requirement. The draft would empower the protection system managing entity or an associating bank to enter into sub-participation transactions to facilitate faster support, revise rules for cooperative banks participating in loan consortia to ensure equal treatment, create a presidents’ assembly as a second association body alongside the existing association council, clarify accounting policy rules for protection-system aid funds and the stabilisation fund of the National Cooperative Savings and Credit Union, and repeal unused provisions on “integrated associations”. The draft envisages the amendments entering into force 14 days after publication in the Journal of Laws.

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