Poles chose digital money and mobile banking

21.7 million Poles actively use banking applications

The number of Polish users of banking applications is constantly growing. At the end of 2023, we already had them 21.7 million, which is 2% more than at the end of the third quarter of 2023 – we read in the NetB@nk report prepared by the Polish Bank Association. What's even more interesting, as many as 72% of them, i.e. nearly 15.5 million people, use only mobile banking. This is as much as 4% more than in the previous quarter.

These 72% of “Mobile only” users are people who log in to the mobile application at least once a month, but do not log in to online banking at the same time.

There must be many more online banking users?

Well, not necessarily, as it turns out, Mobile banking has definitely dominated the hearts and wallets of Poles. The number of active online banking customers was 22.7 million at the end of Q4 2024 (i.e. only one million more than mobile banking), and its increase was 0.9% compared to the previous quarter.

Please remember to separate statistics regarding the number of customers and number of accounts. There were the latter with available electronic banking at the end of 2023 already 43 million (quarterly increase by 0.6%). Unfortunately, the Polish Bank Association did not assess the actual validation of accounts in its report we do not know what share of new accounts corresponds to the actual needs of Polesand how much of it is the result of attractive affiliate programs and the pumping up of numbers by account providers “too bad”.

Growth also in the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) sector

The SME sector uses online banking 71% of all active customers, i.e. nearly 2.5 million companies. The number of accounts with access to electronic banking has increased slightly, but companies still have astronomical numbers of them – at the end of 2023, there were 35 million such accounts, so an average of 10 accounts per company.

We pay more often and more online

In the fourth quarter of 2023, we completed it 4.76% more online transfers than in the previous quarter, and their value increased by 6.56%. However, comparing the third quarter to the commercial purchasing boom that occurs seasonally in the fourth quarter does not fully convey the picture. Year-on-year increases in the number of transactions were much smaller. The number of transactions increased by 0.6% in the Elixir system, however increase in value was not even 6.56% on an annual basis, but 7.17%.

When it comes to quick transfers Express Elixir the number of transactions increased quarterly by 14%, reaching a turnover of PLN 58 billion. In turn, Euro Elixir recorded a 2.6% increase and to 13.5 million, with a transaction value of EUR 92 billion.