The long-awaited full text of the draft of the new Consumer Credit Act has been published. On 7 July 2025, it was submitted for consultation and therefore is likely not yet the final version of the act.

The proposed amendment aims, inter alia, to implement into the Polish legal order Directive (EU) 2023/2225 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 on consumer credit agreements and repealing Directive 2008/48/EC (OJ EU L 2023/2225 of 30.10.2023). As anticipated, the lending market faces many changes and new obligations.

Below we present selected significant information regarding the amendments to the Act. It should be borne in mind that the Act is at the beginning of the legislative path, and certain provisions may still be subject to changes.

Extended scope

As previously announced, the new Consumer Credit Act will also cover agreements:

• on deferral of a monetary obligation for the consumer, even if the consumer is not required to incur any costs related to the deferral;
• of lease or rental, if that agreement or any separate agreement provides for the obligation or possibility to acquire the subject of the agreement;
• on credit which is interest-free and not associated with any fees.

New information obligations

The Directive places great emphasis on informing consumers. In the new Act, the scope and manner of informing clients about loan products will be expanded and modified, including amendments to the information form. The most important information about the credit is to appear on the first page of that form.

Creditors will also be required, inter alia, to provide information on the reference rate on their websites or in applications, as well as to inform about the possibility of using the assistance of entities providing debt counselling.

There are quite a few new information obligations, and their correct and complete implementation will undoubtedly pose a challenge.

More procedures

Lenders will also have to review their existing policies and procedures. The draft Act indicates, among other things, the necessity to adopt good practice principles in the provision of services related to consumer credit and to possess relevant procedures for that purpose.

In addition, the obligation to have procedures for the assessment of the consumer’s creditworthiness and policies and procedures for early identification of consumers experiencing financial difficulties is explicitly indicated.

Furthermore, the draft Act imposes an obligation to train employees in matters relating to the development, offering, or conclusion of consumer credit agreements.

Assessment of credit worthiness

The provisions on the assessment of creditworthiness will change. It will remain obligatory to make inquiries in external databases or to obtain information from the consumer. However, a declaration on expenses and income will become a mandatory annex to the loan agreement. In the case where the credit amount does not exceed the minimum wage, the consumer will only submit a declaration of income and expenses of their household. Lenders will not be allowed to rely on information obtained from social networks or data referred to in Article 9(1) of the GDPR.

Tightening of advertising regulations

The draft Act expressly states that advertising content must be clear, reliable, and comprehensible. The borrower must be explicitly informed that the loan entails costs: “Attention! Borrowing money costs.”

Moreover, the provisions of the draft Act introduce a number of prohibitions. Advertising of consumer credit will be prohibited if it:

• suggests that credit will improve the consumer’s financial situation;
• indicates that outstanding credit, including information disclosed in economic registries, does not affect or has little effect on the credit application assessment;
• suggests that the credit leads to an increase in financial resources, constitutes a form of saving, or may raise the consumer’s standard of living;
• emphasises the ease or speed of obtaining a consumer credit;
• indicates that a discount is conditional on taking out consumer credit;
• offers deferral of credit instalment payments for periods longer than three months.

Regulation of tied and bundled sales

The draft Act introduces new definitions of tied and bundled sales. In the case of the former, it is explicitly stated that tied sales in connection with the conclusion of a consumer credit agreement will be inadmissible, except where the tied sale concerns a payment or savings account maintained free of charge.

When offering so-called bundled sales, the lender will be required to provide the consumer, free of charge and on a durable medium, with information that the consumer credit is also available without additional products or financial services. Nevertheless, in this case as well, it will be prohibited to offer or sell, in connection with a consumer credit agreement, goods and services other than financial services and products, except for services and goods financed by a separate tied credit. This provision is particularly restrictive and will certainly be challenged in the course of further legislative work. The legislator indicates that it is introduced “in order to protect consumers from entering into additional agreements unrelated to the credit, which expose consumers to additional costs.”

Repayment insurance

According to the draft of the new Act, the lender may require the conclusion of a consumer credit repayment insurance agreement, the sum insured of which does not exceed the total amount payable. In this regard, the lender may present their insurance offer but must accept a competitive offer indicated by the consumer.

New limits on non-interest credit costs

In the case of overdraft agreements and credit card agreements, if the lender is also the credit card issuer, the maximum amount of non-interest credit costs will be calculated on a monthly basis – the credit limit on the agreement date × 2%.

However, the legislator intends to abolish the exclusion of the limit for cards under the currently binding Article 36d of the Consumer Credit Act.

Free credit sanction revised

The draft Act prohibits the presumption that the consumer has consented to the conclusion of a consumer credit agreement or an agreement for an additional service, in particular through silent consent, default action, or failure toact.

In the absence of such explicit will to incur an obligation (submitting an application and consenting to the conclusion of an agreement), the consumer will not be obliged to repay the consumer credit.

Moreover, provisions on the sanction of free credit will remain, albeit in a slightly modified form, in the case of breaches of the specifically listed provisions regarding, inter alia: creditworthiness assessment, form of agreement, essential information in the agreement, information on agreement amendments, and non-interest credit costs. In case of such infringements, the client will be obliged to repay only the principal, without other costs.

In the case of an infringement concerning less significant information in the agreement (e.g. failure to indicate the type of credit, failure to inform about interest rate changes in accordance with the Act), the client will be obliged to repay the credit with interest amounting to half of the contractual interest, without other credit costs due to the lender.

The new provisions are a step in the right direction; however, the sanction will remain extremely strict, and the moderation postulated by the market will most likely not be introduced.

Intermediaries under supervision

The Act is to introduce a new definition of a credit intermediary and supervision over such entities. The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) will thus be entitled to issue recommendations or request explanations from intermediaries. The supervisory authority will, of course, also be able to impose sanctions:

1. impose on a managing person directly responsible for the identified irregularities a financial penalty of up to three times the gross monthly remuneration of that person, calculated based on the average gross remuneration for the last 3 months prior to the imposition of the penalty;
2. impose on the entity a financial penalty of up to PLN 500,000;
3. submit a request to that entity for the dismissal of the managing person referred to in point 1;
4. suspend in duties the managing person referred to in point 1, until a decision is made in the matter of the request referred to in point 3; such suspension entails exclusion from making decisions regarding the property rights and obligations of that entity;
5. remove the entity from the register of credit intermediaries.

Intermediaries will also be obliged to pay fees to cover supervision costs, in an amount not exceeding 0.3% of the total revenue from consumer credit intermediation activities.

We will of course continue to provide updates on further stages of the legislative process. We encourage you to follow our publications to stay up to date.