The First Vice President of the EBRD, Jürgen Rigterink, visited Poland and Ukraine last week to meet with private-sector clients and the authorities. Following a record €1 billion investment last year, 80 per cent of which supported the green economy, the visit to Poland underlines the Bank’s continuing commitment to the country and the Central Europe region.

Read about the EBRD visit to Lviv here.

In Warsaw, Jürgen Rigterink met with representatives of the financial sector, including the National Bank of Poland, key private-sector banks and private equity investors.

On Friday 3 March, Jürgen Rigterink and EBRD Regional Head of Poland and the Baltic States, Elisabetta Falcetti, met with Marta Kightley, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Poland. They discussed the effects of the war on Ukraine, the ongoing difficult geopolitical environment and other challenges facing the Polish banking sector, including Swiss franc mortgages and mortgage holidays.

EBRD representatives used the opportunity to welcome the plan to implement the transition to the Risk-Free Rate (RFR) WIRON from WIBOR in accordance with international best practice.

Jürgen Rigterink said: “The EBRD Treasury has been an observer to the working groups on the transition from WIBOR to WIRON, and we have recommended organising a public consultation on the setting of the Conversion Adjustment Spread (between WIBOR and WIRON), as was the case with the LIBOR transition.”

The transition from forward-looking term reference rates (based on shallow-term interbank lending markets) to overnight risk-free rates (transaction-based benchmarks based on deeper underlying overnight markets) has been taking place globally over the last few years.

The EBRD supports Polish capital markets with investment and technical assistance, including for the country’s Capital Markets Development Strategy together with the European Union. In November 2022 a presentation on the transition from WIBOR to WIRON was held at the EBRD Headquarters in London. The event was organised jointly by the EBRD’s Treasury department and GWP Benchmark, the benchmark administrator.

To date, the EBRD has invested nearly €12.5 billion in Poland, with a record €1 billion investment in 2022, including in sustainable finance instruments on the capital markets.