mBank

About mBank

The story of mBank begins not with a startup, but within an established one. In the year 2000, BRE Bank, a Polish corporate bank founded in 1986 by Krzysztof Szwarc, saw an opportunity. The internet was nascent, and a team within BRE, led by Sławomir Lachowski, envisioned a new kind of bank—one that lived entirely online. This was a radical idea in Poland at the time. They launched mBank as a brand representing the country's first purely internet-based bank. The goal was to attract retail customers with a limited number of high-quality products at very competitive prices, a stark contrast to traditional banking. The move was a playbook classic: disrupt your own industry before someone else does. While BRE Bank continued serving corporate clients, mBank focused on digital-native consumers. This dual-brand strategy continued for over a decade. A major shift occurred in 2013 when BRE Bank decided to unify its operations. Recognizing the strength and modern appeal of the mBank brand, the entire group, including its other retail arm MultiBank, consolidated under the single name mBank. This wasn't just a name change; it was a strategic pivot to a digital-first identity. The original BRE Bank had been publicly traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 1992, and this legacy continued under the mBank banner, with German Commerzbank as its long-term strategic partner and majority shareholder.