mBank skips the 2025 dividend – final CHF provisions before a return to payouts in 2027

mBank skips the 2026 dividend – the only exception in the WIG20 banking dividend season

The management board of mBank has confirmed that the bank will not pay a dividend in 2026 – neither from 2025 profits nor from retained earnings of prior years. That makes mBank the only one of the five WIG20 banks to leave shareholders empty-handed this dividend season. The board signals a return to payouts in 2027 at the earliest – and only once two parallel processes are complete: the final provisions on the Swiss-franc (CHF) loan portfolio, and the rebuilding of capital after Commerzbank's exit from the shareholder register in 2025.

The decision contrasts with the rest of the sector. PKO BP plans PLN 7.68bn, Pekao PLN 5.2bn, Santander PLN 5.1bn, and Alior PLN 1.17bn – together more than PLN 19bn of bank payouts in 2026. Against that backdrop, zero from mBank is exceptional but not unjustified – and it has a clear structural cause.

mBank – a bank with BRE Bank DNA, now in an ownership transition

mBank SA – a joint-stock company registered under KRS number 0000025237 and headquartered in Warsaw in the Mazowieckie voivodeship – is an institution whose roots reach back to 1986 and the BRE Bank brand, for two decades one of Poland's most recognisable corporate banks. After the 2013 rebrand, mBank became the second most digital bank in Poland (after ING Bank Śląski), with around 5.7 million retail customers and a service model run almost entirely online.

2025 brought the most significant ownership change in the bank's history: Commerzbank's exit from the shareholder register. The German bank – a strategic investor since 1995 and majority shareholder from 2005 – sold its stake in 2025 in a transaction aimed chiefly at domestic investors. The process, though positive from a corporate-governance perspective and long awaited, requires transitional capital discipline from the bank. Hence, among other things, the absence of a 2026 dividend.

Position in the 2026 dividend season: the only zero

In the 2026 dividend season, the WIG20 banking hierarchy is unambiguous:

• PKO BP – PLN 7.68bn (PLN 6.14 per share, record date 5 August, payment 13 August)
• Pekao – PLN 5.2bn (PLN 19.77 per share, record date 21 April, payment 11 May)
• Santander Bank Polska – PLN 5.1bn
• Alior Bank – PLN 1.17bn
• mBank – PLN 0

Together the top four will distribute more than PLN 19bn, while mBank – with 2024 net profit of around PLN 2.2bn and a balance sheet comparable in scale to Alior's – could in theory pay out as much as PLN 1–1.5bn, were it not for the CHF burden and the post-Commerzbank capital regime. According to the bank's 2025 financial statements, mBank earned roughly PLN 3.54bn in net profit – up 58% on the prior year's PLN 2.24bn – which only underlines how much capital is being retained. The scale of mBank's potential but forgone dividend (around PLN 1bn) is roughly half of Alior's payout – not a symbolic amount, but one material to the sector.

The reason: final CHF provisions and buffers for a new shareholder base

The structural cause of the zero dividend has two parallel components. First, the final provisions on the Swiss-franc loan portfolio. mBank, like other Polish universal banks that sold CHF mortgages in 2006–2009, has been building provisions against settlements and court rulings (following the case law of the CJEU and the Polish Supreme Court) since 2019. By 2025, total CHF-related provisioning costs at mBank had exceeded PLN 14bn – and the 2025–2026 cycle is meant to be the last with material write-downs. Second, capital strengthening after Commerzbank's exit. The German bank was not only a shareholder but also a provider of liquidity lines and capital support at difficult moments. With it gone, mBank has to build a standalone buffer.

“A bank skips a dividend when it has to close two simultaneous processes. mBank in 2026 closes the CHF write-downs - the last after six years of reserves - and at the same time strengthens capital after Commerzbank's exit. It is a rare combination that, from a KNF and rating-agency perspective, justifies a zero dividend more strongly than any other position in the Polish sector. A return in 2027 - only on condition that both processes are closed.”

In practice, 2026 is a year of patience for mBank's retail shareholders, but 2027 – if the board delivers on its signal – could bring a return to payouts at sector-competitive levels (a 4–6% yield). mBank's CET1 ratio at end-2025 stood at around 14.5% – below PKO BP (17%+) and Pekao (17.5%), but still well above the regulatory minimum of 8.5%. Once the CHF issue is settled and the new shareholder base stabilised, the board is targeting a CET1 rebuild above 16% – the threshold at which a dividend becomes realistic.

What you'll find in the mBank profile

The mBank profile in our database contains the full financial history of the capital group (mFaktoring, mLeasing, mBank Hipoteczny, mTFI), the current management board, the complete history of KRS registry filings, and a "Beneficial owners" section showing the ownership structure after Commerzbank's 2025 exit – broken down across investment funds, pension funds (OFE), and retail shareholders. The "Financial statements" section lets you trace how net profit evolved over 2019–2025, together with the CHF provision lines that are key to understanding why the 2026 dividend is zero – and why 2027 is realistic.

Data: Strefa Inwestorów - mBank communication for the 2026 dividend season; mBank - investor relations; KNF - capital-buffer recommendations; KRS - current readout; financial statements filed with KRS, as of 2026-07-27.