TRANSLATORS’ EXPLANATORY NOTE
The
English
content
of
this
report
is
a
free
translation
of
the
registered
auditor’s
report
of
the
below-
mentioned
Polish
Company.
In
Poland
statutory
accounts
as
well
as
the
auditor’s
report
should
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and
presented
in
Polish
and
in
accordance
with
Polish
legislation
and
the
accounting
principles
and
practices generally adopted in Poland.
The
accompanying
translation
has
not
been
reclassified
or
adjusted
in
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way
to
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to
the
accounting
principles
generally
accepted
in
countries
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Anglo-Saxon
countries
has
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adopted
to
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extent
practicable.
In
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PricewaterhouseCoopers Polska spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością Audyt sp. k.
, ul.
Polna 11, 00-633 Warsaw, Poland,
T: +48 (22) 746 4000, F:+48 (22) 742 4040 ,
PricewaterhouseCoopers Polska Spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością Audyt sp. k. is entered into the National Court Register maintained by the District Court for the Capital
City of Warsaw, under KRS number 0000750050, NIP 526-021-02-28. The seat of the Company is in Warsaw at Polna 11 str.
Independent Registered Auditor’s Report
To the General Shareholders’ Meeting and the Supervisory Board of Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności
Bank Polski S.A.
Report on the audit of
separate
financial statements
Our opinion
In our opinion the accompanying annual separate financial statements:
•
give a true and fair view of the separate financial position of
Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności
Bank Polski S.A.
(the “Bank”) as at 31 December 2023 and the Bank’s separate financial
performance and the separate cash flows for the year then ended in accordance with the
applicable International Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union and the
adopted accounting policies;
•
comply in terms of form and content with the laws applicable to the Bank and the Bank’s Articles
of Association;
•
have been prepared on the basis of properly maintained books of account in accordance with
the provisions of Chapter 2 of the Accounting Law of 29 September 1994 (the “Accounting Act”).
Our opinion is consistent with our additional report to the Audit Committee issued on the date of this
report.
We hav
e audited the annual separate financial statements of
Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank
Polski S.A.
which comprise:
•
the separate statement of financial position as at 31 December 2023;
and the following prepared for the financial year then ended:
•
the separate income statement;
•
the separate statement of comprehensive income;
•
the separate statement of changes in equity;
•
the separate statement of cash flows, and
•
the additional notes to the separate financial statements, comprising significant accounting policy
information and other explanatory information.
We conducted our audit in accordance with the National Standards on Auditing as adopted by the
resolution of the National Council of Statutory Auditors and the resolution of the Council of the Polish
Audit Supervision Agency (“NSA”) and pursuant to the Law of 11 May 2017 on Registered Auditors,
Registered Audit Companies and Public Oversi
ght (the “Law on Registered Auditors”) and the
Regulation (EU) No. 537/2014 of 16 April 2014 on specific requirements regarding the statutory audit
uncertain. As in all of our audits we also addressed the risk of management override of internal
controls, including among other matters, consideration of whether there was evidence of bias that
represented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud.
Materiality
The scope of our audit was influenced by our application of materiality. An audit is designed to obtain
reasonable assurance whether the
separate financial statements are free from material misstatement.
Misstatements may arise due to fraud or error. They are considered material if, individually or in
aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on
the basis of the separate
financial statements.
Based on our professional judgement, we determined certain quantitative thresholds for materiality,
including the overall materiality for the
separate financial statements as a whole, as set out in the table
below. These, together with qualitative considerations, helped us to determine the scope of our audit
and the nature, timing and extent of our audit procedures and to evaluate the effect of misstatements,
if any, both individually and in aggregate on the separate fi
nancial statements as a whole.
5% of the profit before tax adjusted for the tax on financial institutions.
For reasons of prudence, we adjusted the overall materiality so that it
does not exceed approximately 1% of the Bank's net assets.
Rationale for the
materiality benchmark
applied
We chose profit before tax as the benchmark because, in our view, it is the
benchmark against which the performance of the Group is most
commonly measured by users, and is a generally accepted
benchmark. We adjusted this value by the tax on financial institutions,
which has the nature of a special tax burden.
In order to calculate the materiality as above, we adopted the levels of
5% (of profit before tax adjusted for tax on financial institutions) and
1% (of net assets), respectively, because based on our professional
judgement they are within the range of acceptable quantitative
materiality thresholds.
We agreed with the Audit Committee of the Bank that we would report to them misstatements of the
separate financial statements identified during our audit above PLN 22 million, as well as
misstatements below that amount that, in our view, warranted reporting for qualitative reasons.
Key audit matters are those matters that, in our professional judgement, were of most significance in
our audit of the separate financial statements of the current period. They include the most significant
identified risks of material misstatements, including the identified risks of material misstatement
resulting from fraud. These matters were addressed in the context of our audit of the separate
financial statements as a whole, and in forming our opinion thereon. We do not provide a separate
opinion on these matters.
Other information, including the report on the operations
Other information
Other information comprises:
•
a PKO Bank Polski S.A. Group Directors’ Report for 2023 prepared jointly with the PKO Bank
Polski S.A. Directors’ Report
(“the Report on the operations”) and the corporate governance
statement and the statement on non-financial information referred to in Article 49b(1) of the
Accounting Act which are separate parts of the Report on the operations,
•
other documents comprising the Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 December 2023
(“the Annual Report”),
(together “Other Information”).
Other information does not include the separate financial statements and our auditor’s report thereon.
Responsibility of the Management and Supervisory Board
The Management Board of the Bank is responsible for the preparation of the Other Information in
accordance with the law.
The Bank’s Management Board and the members of the Supervisory Board are obliged to ensure that
the Report on the operations including its separate parts complies with the requirements of the
Accounting Law.
Registered auditor’s responsibility
Our opinion on the separate financial statements does not cover the Other Information.
In connection with our audit of the separate financial statements, our responsibility under NSA is to
read the Other Information and, in doing so, consider whether the Other Information is materially
inconsistent with the information in the separate financial statements, our knowledge obtained in our
audit, or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If, based on the work performed, we identified
a material misstatement in the Other Information, we are obliged to inform about it in our audit report.
In accordance with the requirements of the Law on the Registered Auditors, we are also obliged to
issue an opinion on whether the Report on the operations has been prepared in accordance with the
law and is consistent with information included in annual separate financial statements.
Moreover, we are obliged to issue an opinion on whether the Bank provided the required information
in its corporate governance statement and to inform whether the Bank prepared a statement on non-
financial information.
In addition, we are required to audit the financial information included
in item 5 of
the Report on the
operations in accordance with the scope described in this audit report and the requirements of the
Banking Law of 29 August 1997 (“the Banking Law”).
Statement on the Other information
We declare, based on the knowledge of the Bank and its environment obtained during our audit, that
we have not identified any material misstatements in the Report on the operations
and the remaining
Other information.
Opinion on the Report on the operations
Based on the work we carried out during our audit, in our opinion, the Report on the operations:
•
has been prepared in accordance with the requirements of Article 49 of the Accounting Act and
para. 70 of the Regulation of the Minister of Finance dated 29 March 2018 on current and
periodical information submitted by issuers of securities and conditions for considering as
equivalent the information required under the legislation of a non-Member State (“Regulation on
current information”) and Article 111(1–2) of the Banking Law;
•
is consistent with the information in the separate financial statements.
Opinion on the corporate governance statement
In our opinion, in its corporate governance statement, the Bank included information set out in para.
70.6 (5) of the Regulation on current information. In addition, in our opinion, information specified in
paragraph 70.6 (5)(c)–(f), (h) and (i) of the said Regulation included in the corporate governance
statement are consistent with the applicable provisions of the law and with information included in the
separate financial statements.
Information on non-financial information
In accordance with the requirements of the Act on the Registered Auditors, we confirm that the Bank
has prepared a statement on non-financial information referred to in Article 49b(1) of the Accounting
Act as a separate section of the Report on the operations.
We have not performed any assurance work relating to the statement on non-financial information and
we do not provide any assurance with regard to it.
Report on other legal and regulatory requirements
Information on compliance with prudential regulations
The Management Board of the Bank is responsible for complying with the applicable prudential
regulations set out in separate legislation, and in particular, for correct determination of the capital
ratios.
The capital ratios as at 31 December 2023 have been presented in
Note
66 o
f the separate financial
statements and include Tier 1 common capital ratio, Tier 1 capital ratio and the total capital ratio.
We are obliged to inform in our report on the audit of the
separate financial statements whether the
Bank has complied with the applicable prudential regulations set out in separate legislation, and in
particular, whether the Bank has correctly determined its capital ratios. For the purposes of the said
information, the following legal acts are understood as separate legislation: Regulation (EU) no.
575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 June 2013 on prudential requirements
for credit institutions and investment firms and amending Regulation (EU) No 648/2012, as amended
(“CRR”), the Banking Law and the Act of 5 August 2015 on macro-prudential supervision over the
financial system and on crisis management in the financial system (“the Act on macro-prudential
supervision”).
It is not the purpose of an audit of the separate financial statements to present an opinion on
compliance with the applicable prudential regulations specified in the separate legislation specified
above, and in particular, on the correct determination of the capital ratios, and therefore, we do not
express such an opinion.
Based on the work performed by us, we inform you that we have not identified:
•
any cases of non-compliance by the Bank with the applicable prudential regulations set out in
separate legislation referred to above, in the period from 1 January to 31 December 2023;
•
any irregularities in the determination by the Bank of the capital ratios as at 31 December 2023 in
accordance with the separate legislation referred to above;
which would have a material impact on the separate financial statements.