The project aims to broaden the understanding of how banks owned by individuals, families, or non-financial enterprises operate. The research will explore how ownership structure affects lending activity, financial stability, and banks’ resilience to external economic shocks.
The research team will conduct a comparative analysis of two groups of financial institutions: family-owned banks and banks controlled by non-financial corporations. The goal is to identify differences in their lending behavior and in how they respond to adverse economic events. The study will also assess institutional and internal factors influencing the safety and operational effectiveness of these banks.
“We want to better understand how ownership structure affects the way banks operate — both in periods of stability and during crises. Analyzing family-owned banks and those controlled by non-financial enterprises will allow us to determine whether ownership models translate into resilience and lending policies. The results may prove valuable not only for academia but also for financial supervision and economic policymakers,” emphasizes Prof. Łukasz Kozłowski, Principal Investigator of the OPUS 28 research project.
The project’s findings may offer valuable insights for regulatory institutions, policymakers, and the banking sector itself. The conclusions will help assess how ownership models influence credit policy, risk exposure, and resilience during crises. Because the research uses international data, it will allow for cross-country comparisons of ownership and governance practices across different economic systems.
The OPUS 28 competition is one of the key funding schemes of Poland’s National Science Centre (NCN). It supports both individual researchers and research teams conducting basic studies across a wide range of disciplines. Receiving this grant confirms the high scientific quality of projects carried out at Kozminski University and underscores the institution’s growing role in the national research landscape.
