Polish financial sector takes new tax in stride, audit office says

The introduction of the banking tax has not had a negative impact on the stability of Poland's banking and insurance sectors, the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) said in a Tuesday statement. However, NIK recalls an observation made by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), which said that insurers have seen a reduction in equity which makes it more difficult for them to maintain adequate capital safeguards. Poland introduced a 0.44 percent tax on financial institutions' assets in 2016. Due to its "speedy introduction, the tax revenues for 2016 were overestimated, but following analyses, they were already quite accurately calculated for the next year."