Pekao considers new logo and name as its CEO files Polbank trademarks

Pekao, Poland's second-largest bank, may change its logo and name. Bankier.pl reported this on 20 October 2026, citing findings by Business Insider Polska.

What Business Insider found

According to BI, conceptual work on a rebrand is under way at the bank. The bison could be dropped from the logo. An anonymous source told journalists that changing the bank's name was "also on the table". The supervisory board has not yet approved the idea.

The bank did not address the details. It said it was "in the process of evaluating its market position" and analysing the impact of its brand on competitiveness.

Filings at the Patent Office

On Monday 19 October 2026, cashless.pl described applications for the marks Polbank and Polbank24, published in the bulletin of the Polish Patent Office. They were filed by Cezary Stypułkowski, Pekao's CEO. The services listed include accounts, deposits, loans, payment cards, mobile apps, brokerage and insurance intermediation. Pekao did not comment to cashless.pl before publication. BI's sources say Polbank could replace the bank's current name. This is so far unofficial information.

The Polbank name has been used before. In 2006 Polbank EFG launched as the Polish arm of Greece's Eurobank EFG. It was later taken over by Raiffeisen, and in 2018 BGŻ BNP Paribas bought Raiffeisen's core business in Poland. Protection for the old Polbank mark expired in 2019.

The bison has vanished before

The logo with a bison first appeared in 1997. On 4 June 2012 the Italian owner, UniCredit, replaced it with its own symbol. The bison returned on 7 June 2017, when PZU and the Polish Development Fund completed the purchase of a 32.8% stake in Pekao from UniCredit.

Why change?

The name Pekao is the spoken form of the letters P-K-O, like PKO BP, so customers tell the two banks apart mainly by their logos: "the one with the bison" and "the one with the piggy bank". In a letter to staff in October 2024, Stypułkowski wrote that customers "regularly confuse our banks". In his view this makes it harder to attract younger customers, and "Pekao needs a new image and a revitalised brand". He also wrote that Pekao's customers are about 10 years older than mBank's.

According to unofficial findings by cashless.pl from January 2026, PKO BP had considered similar changes. In the end, on 5 February 2026, the bank announced only a refresh of its visual identity, and the piggy bank stayed in the logo.

What next

There is no official decision yet. It is not known whether or when any changes will take effect.