A bank in Poland blocked accounts — and there's a mortgage and savings there. Belarusian IT specialist fears losing apartment
A Belarusian who has lived in Poland for five years has been waiting for a residence permit for too long.
Bank Pekao S.A. blocked transactions for IT specialist Siarhei because he is currently awaiting another residence permit and cannot show a valid card. Now his accounts — including savings — show "zero", writes the Telegram channel Zloty dzik.
The Belarusian also has a mortgage in the same bank, the payments for which he cannot make. The bank threatens to terminate cooperation (what exactly this means is not yet clear).
Siarhei has been in Poland since 2022, waiting for a second Blue Card in Gdańsk (and there, even for fingerprinting, they call after 6 or more months after submitting documents).
Siarhei's story began on May 18, 2026, when Bank Pekao S.A., citing the anti-money laundering and terrorist financing law (AML), demanded a document from him confirming the legality of his stay in Poland.
Siarhei arrived in the country in January 2022 from Belarus, works as an IT specialist and now lives in Gdańsk. He has a mortgage loan and a savings account opened with Pekao Bank, which holds about 50,000 zlotys (11.5 thousand euros).
In December 2025, he submitted documents for a residence card and is still waiting for an invitation for fingerprinting. Siarhei only has a paper confirmation with a stamp of application acceptance, issued by the Pomeranian Voivodeship, but the bank was not satisfied with it.
On May 28, Siarhei went to the bank branch for employees to make a copy of this stamp, but the next day the bank announced that this basis was not suitable and a valid residence card, visa, stamp in the passport, or a certificate from the voivode was needed.
Siarhei tried to explain that stamps are no longer put in passports for a long time, but the bank was not satisfied with this.
In parallel, the Belarusian contacted the Office for Foreigners to obtain the necessary certificate, but there he was told that he would have to wait two months for it (and according to unofficial information from other foreigners — even up to four months, although by law such certificates should be issued within 7 days).
Sudden blocking
On June 8, the bank sent a repeated demand with a threat "to cease conducting any transactions on the accounts based on Article 41, paragraph 1, subparagraph 3 of the AML law".
In response, Siarhei filed an official complaint demanding that the voivodeship's stamp be recognized as sufficient proof of legal stay (based on Article 108 of the "Law on Foreigners").
The legal period for its consideration expired on July 8.
On July 14, the bank blocked Siarhei's account transactions, and in the mobile application, the balance started showing as zero.
On July 15, Siarhei received a paper letter — a response to the complaint, in which the bank stated that the stamp from the voivode, according to the bank's internal rules, is considered valid only for one month from the date of issue.
Since more than 7 months had passed since the stamp was affixed, Pekao S.A. deemed it invalid. Accordingly, the bank refused to recognize it as a proper document for AML verification.
In the blocking notification, the bank stated that it gives the client a deadline until August 8, after which it may completely cease cooperation.
Siarhei notes that the situation with Pekao would not be a big problem for him if not for the mortgage, as the bank does not clearly explain what "termination of cooperation" means and what consequences it has for the borrower.
Siarhei fears that this could lead to the termination of the mortgage agreement:"I assume it could be a breach of contract due to my fault and a demand to pay the remainder of the mortgage. Since I have no money, I don't know, perhaps seizure of property."
Refinancing the loan and transferring it to another bank without a valid residence card will also not be possible.
What the IT specialist is doing
This is not Siarhei's first conflict with Bank Pekao S.A. Last year, at the same time, they demanded a work permit from him, refusing to accept his Blue Card and decision. At that time, the Belarusian managed to solve the problem with a complaint.
Now Siarhei has demanded clarification from the bank regarding:
- whether his savings account is blocked and on what grounds;
- what "complete termination of cooperation" means;
- what consequences it will have.
He also sent applications to the Financial Ombudsman (Rzecznik Finansowy) and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF).
Additionally, the Belarusian contacted the Office for Foreigners due to the delay in issuing the certificate. If the situation cannot be resolved through the ombudsman, Siarhei is ready to go to court.
He also has an account with PKO BP bank, where, according to him, such strict measures are not applied:
"There, they write interesting messages to me in the app — like, come to the branch, bring documents. But accounts are not blocked, there were no threats of blocking. Only the ability to open new products is limited (for example, I couldn't open a savings account online there — the system asked me to come to the branch). I plan to go there as soon as I receive the certificate from the voivode."
The European Commission previously clarified: sanctions should not affect Russians and Belarusians with legal status in Europe.
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