The National Bank of Poland as a state authority – de lege lata remarks

Abstract

The Constitution of the Republic of Poland explicitly states that the National Bank of Poland is the central bank of the Republic of Poland, which means that the constitutional design was intended to ensure that only one bank with such scope of competence and constitutional position operates within Polish territory. The term “state’s central bank” is a concept developed in the literature on banking and finance, based on the recurring practices of various countries. The experiences of democratic states lead to the conclusion that the term “central bank” entails a minimum set of functions and characteristics inherently associated with it. In the relevant literature, a widely accepted list of three functions is recognized: the state bank, the issuing bank, and the bank of banks. The last function defines the position of the NBP within the country’s banking system and involves the central bank’s ability to influence the functioning of that system.