The SGB Group, for Spółdzielcza Grupa Bankowa (lit. 'Cooperative Banking Group'), is the second-largest Polish cooperative banking group behind the BPS Group. It relies on the Poznań-based central financing entity SGB-Bank, which served 174 local cooperative banks as of mid-2025.[1]
The group's origin was the establishment in 1990-1991 of Gospodarczy Bank Wielkopolski (GBW) in Poznań, which renamed itself as SGB-Bank in 2011 following multiple mergers.
History
GBW was the first of a number of regional banks created in the 1990s to compete with BGZ Bank for the provision of wholesale financial services to local cooperative banks.[2]
By 1993, 117 local cooperative banks had opted to become affiliated with GBW instead of their prior reliance on BGZ Bank for central financial services. France's Crédit Mutuel group became a shareholder of GBW.
By 2000, GBW had formed a so-called "G-2" group together with Bałtycki Bank Regionalny (BBR) in Koszalin,[3] GBW subsequently absorbed its G-2 partner BBR in 2001, then Pomorsko-Kujawski Bank Regionalny in Bydgoszcz in 2002.[1]
In 2011, it acquired Mazowiecki Bank Regionalny (est. 1996 in Warsaw), after which it renamed itself SGB-Bank.
Kazimierz Grześkowiak was the GBW's first president.[4]
The group also includes IPS-SGB, the entity that manages its institutional protection scheme.[1]
See also
- Cooperative banking in Poland
- List of banks in Poland
- List of European cooperative banks
References
- O Grupie SGB SGB Spółdzielcza Grupa Bankowa, retrieved 2025-7-30^
- Bankowość spółdzielcza - Historia Krajowy Związek Banków Spółdzielczych, retrieved 2025-7-31^
- Będą trzy grupy zrzeszające Interia Biznes, 2000-1-14^
- Czesława Kosturek. Historia banków spółdzielczych w ostatnim ćwierćwieczu bs.net.pl, 2015-3-14^