Bank Polski SA

This article is about Poland's central bank during the interwar period. For the 19th-century bank, see Bank Polski. For other uses, see Bank of Poland.

Head office of the Bank of Poland in Warsaw, photographed in 1939

Bank Polski SA, full name Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna (lit. 'Bank of Poland Joint-stock Company'), sometimes referred to as the "Second Bank of Poland" to distinguish it from its 19th-century namesake, was the central bank of the Second Polish Republic. It was founded in 1924 and operated until the invasion of Poland in 1939, after which it relocated to London together with the Polish Government in Exile. In liberated Poland, it was replaced in 1945 by the National Bank of Poland, and was eventually liquidated in 1952.

History

Former branch building in Kraków, completed in 1925

A 5-złoty banknote issued by Bank Polski (1930)

When Poland emerged as an independent country in 1918, it combined territories formerly under the central banking jurisdiction of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, Austro-Hungarian Bank, and German Reichsbank, and had no central bank of its own. For a few years, the Polish National Loan Fund took over a temporary role of issuing currency, but was unable to avert hyperinflation.

Following the State Treasury Repair Act of January 11, 1924, minister Władysław Grabski undertook monetary reform, a key part of which was the establishment of the Bank of Poland, re-using the name of the 19th-century Bank Polski. The new institution was created as a joint stock company whose shares were offered to the Polish public. Its stock was soon raised from the initial 100,000,000 złotych to 150 million, split onto 1.5 million shares. As the main shareholder, the President of Poland had the right to name the chairman and deputy chairman of the bank's board of trustees. In 1926 and 1927, the government formally waived the right to issue Polish currency in favor of Bank Polski SA, confirmed its independence from the government and appointed a foreign advisor to a member of the Bank's Council, taking inspiration from the stabilization programs implemented in neighboring countries by the Economic and Financial Organization of the League of Nations. The first such foreign adviser, appointed in November 1927, was Charles S. Dewey, previously United States Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Fiscal Affairs.

At least 30 percent of the money was to be backed by gold (and a smaller amount by silver) and foreign currencies; after the reform of 1927, this threshold was increased to 40 percent. The dividend paid to shareholders could not exceed 8 percent. When the profit was between 8 to 12 percent, half went to the State Treasury and the other half to shareholders as a superdividend. Above 12 percent, the state collected two thirds.

Prior to the invasion of Poland in 1939, at the initiative of Ignacy Matuszewski and Henryk Floyar-Rajchman, the Bank of Poland evacuated all of its gold reserves (105,000 kg) from Poland to the Bank of France in Paris, through Romania , Turkey and Syria, and then most of it to Canada and the Bank of England in London. Following the invasion, the Bank of Poland relocated, first in Paris from 19 September 1939 to 1 July 1940, then in London together with the Polish Government in Exile, and financed most of the latter's military effort. Meanwhile, in occupied Poland, the Third Reich in 1940 created the Bank of Issue in Poland for its General Government, issuing the so-called German "Kraków-złoty". In other parts of the former Polish territory, central banking was taken over respectively by the Nazi German Reichsbank and Soviet Gosbank.

Similarly to other Allied Military Currency bank notes, American "Liberation banknotes" for Poland were printed in 1944. On 15 January 1945, the new communist authorities of Poland founded the National Bank of Poland (NBP).

In 1946, the bank's governor Bohdan Winiarski led the decision to move the institution back to Warsaw. A stock of gold from the Bank's deposits in British, French and American banks was returned to Poland, as well as banknotes printed in Great Britain and intended for circulation in the country. However, they notes were not released into circulation because the Polish government, upon establishment of the NBP, had deprived the Bank Polski of its note-issuance privilege. Meanwhile, the stock of gold that backed those banknotes was distributed by the communist authorities for budget expenditure in the years 1946–1958, and was partially allocated to compensation for citizens of foreign countries expropriated as a result of the Polish Act on the Nationalization of Industry. This was done by transferring appropriate deposits to the governments of the US, UK and France through clearing agreements, whereby these governments took over liabilities towards their citizens in respect of property expropriated in Poland. Eventually, the Bank Polski SA was liquidated, starting in 1951 and ending on 7 January 1952.

Leadership

The successive Governors of the Bank of Poland were:

• Stanisław Karpiński (1924–1929)
• Władysław Wróblewski (1929–1936)
• Adam Koc (1936)
• Władysław Byrka (1936–1941)
• Bohdan Winiarski (1941–1946)
• Edward Drożniak (1946–1952)

Buildings

The Bank Polski SA operated in Warsaw from the former branch building of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, erected in 1908–1911 on a design by architect Leon Benois on the site of the former Polish mint. In 1918 that building became the seat of the Polish National Loan Fund, which the Bank Polski replaced in 1924. During Nazi occupation, it was used by the Bank of Issue. It was not reconstructed following the destructions of World War II. In the 2010s, the Senator office complex was built on the footprint of the former Bank of Poland building and incorporated some of its surviving architectonic elements.

In Kraków, the Polish National Loan Fund in 1921 commissioned a new building from architect Kazimierz Wyczyński, which was completed after the latter's death in 1923 by Teodor Hoffmann. That building was used in 1940–1945 as head office of the Bank of Issue in Poland. The branch building In Siedlce was similarly commissioned by the National Loan Fund and completed in 1924.

In other localities, the Bank of Poland repurposed former branches of the Reichsbank, as in Bydgoszcz, Katowice or Toruń, or of the Russian State Bank, as in Łódź.

• 
  Warsaw branch of the State Bank of the Russian Empire, c. 1911
• 
  Side view of the same building, c. 1911
• 
  Damaged façade in 1944, before partial demolition
• 
  The ruined façade in 1965
• 
  Remains of the building restored as part of the Senator office complex, 2015
• 
  Aerial view of the Senator office complex, with the Bank Polski building remains on the right

See also

• Bank Polski
• List of central banks