KPF'S HISTORY

The Conference of Financial Companies in Poland (KPF) has been set up in 1999 to represent the Polish credit intermediation trade. The key persons behind KPF’s creation were Mariusz Łukasiewicz, CEO of LUKAS, Sylwester Cacek, CEO of DOMINET and prof. Wojciech Żurawik, CEO of PKO TF. Since the year 2000 KPF has been an active participant of the regulatory process, being consulted on issues crucial for the retail financial services industry. In 2005 the scope of the industries that KPF represents has been broadened and now the association is a voice of several areas of the retail financial services market including the consumer finance banking sector, credit intermediation, financial advisory, economic information exchange, insurance and debt collection and management.

In cooperation with one of the most recognised business ethics experts – prof. Wojciech Gasparski - KPF initiated the creation and implementation of an ethics code – The Principles of Good Practice. Rules laid down in this document have set new business standards for credit intermediation, debt collection and economic information exchange, thus improving the level of services and increasing trust among market players.

Business ethics play a major role in KPF’s activities. Setting up an Ethics Commission and implementing an ethics program are two key elements of creating and maintaining relations based on trust with stakeholders responsible for protecting consumer rights in Poland.

Another of KPF’s vital focus points is education. It initiated the iconcept of launching a publishing cycle – the Library of the Consumer Finance Congress – which already includes a number of important publications and is a platform for publishing personal finance guides for consumers. It is also used as means for promoting workshops and conferences which form an important part of a dialogue with Polish consumer organisations. One example is the Consumer Finance Congress which throughout its 4 editions was attended by over 1000 participants and hosted over 100 speakers.

For over three years KPF has representedy Poland's financial services trade in one of Europe's most recognised trade orgniasations - EUROFINAS - a federation which brings together 16 member associations from different EU member states and as such represents over 1.600 financial services institutions across Europe.