German
digital bank Trade Republic has launched operations in Poland last week,
marking its first expansion outside the eurozone and setting up a
direct challenge to established players like XTB in the country’s
growing retail investment market.
The move
comes when Trade Republic also announced a major expansion into private
markets through partnerships with Apollo Global Management and EQT, giving
the platform additional competitive firepower as it targets Poland’s 38
million consumers.
Trade
Republic entered Poland with a savings account offering 4.25% annual
interest, matching the Polish central bank’s deposit rate, along with a
flat trading fee of 4 zlotys per transaction. For comparison, XTB
offers 4.1% promotional interest rate and 1.85% standard rate
The newcomer
highlighted Poland’s severe retirement funding gap, noting only 3% of the
population feels confident about having sufficient retirement funds,
the lowest level across the entire EU.
Christian Hecker, co-founder of Trade Republic
“Our
mission is to democratize wealth across Europe,” said
Christian Hecker, co-founder of Trade Republic.
“With our launch in Poland, we demonstrate that we can bring
this vision to life also beyond the Eurozone”.
The
German fintech provides Polish customers with local IBAN accounts,
direct trading in zloty, and access to over 10,000 stocks, ETFs, and
cryptocurrencies with no foreign exchange fees. Initially, the Polish
stock offering will be limited to the 100 most actively traded
domestic shares. Earlier this year, Italian
customers received a similar offer, where Trade Republic also wants to
bridge the “pension gap.”
While Trade Republic charges a flat commission, which XTB doesn’t do up to €100,000, the Polish fintech bills a foreign exchange fee of 0.5%, which can be considered a “hidden” fee when trading outside the local Warsaw Stock Exchange. XTB therefore works out cheaper up to a rather modest amount of 800 zloty, above which Trade Republic may be more cost-effective for retail traders interested in foreign ETFs and stocks.
Join IG, CMC,
and Robinhood in London’s leading trading industry event!
Competition Intensifies
for XTB
Trade
Republic’s arrival adds pressure on XTB, which recently overtook mBank to
become Poland’s largest brokerage by account numbers with nearly 615,000
accounts as of August 22025. The publicly-listed Polish broker has
dominated new account acquisitions, capturing 335,000 clients in the last year.
However,
Trade Republic brings significant scale with
over 10 million customers across 18 European markets and €150 billion in
assets under management. The platform has achieved profitability
over the past two years and counts Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel’s
Founders Fund among its investors.
Kamil Szymański, the Head of Trade Republic Poland
Kamil Szymański,
who previously developed ETF offerings at mBank’s brokerage arm, will lead
Trade Republic’s Polish market development. “Poland is one of the
fastest-growing economies in Europe, yet households remain structurally
under-invested and face a growing pension gap,” Szymański said
in Polish media reports.
Revolut
is also breathing down XTB’s neck. Although the company isn’t included in
official statistics on the number of brokerage accounts in Poland due to its
Lithuanian registration, 590,000 people in the country currently use the
Revolut Invest service, just 25,000 fewer than XTB.
Local Brokers Slash Fees
in Response to Competition
The arrival
of Trade Republic has intensified an already heated pricing war among Polish
brokers, with established players scrambling to match competitive offerings on
investment costs.
Just days
before Trade Republic’s Polish launch, mBank’s brokerage arm sparked the fee
battle by eliminating commissions on ETF trading within IKE and IKZE retirement
accounts through February 28, 2026. The move targeted foreign-listed ETFs,
where mBank previously charged 0.29% commission (minimum 14 zlotys) but now
only applies a 0.1% foreign exchange fee.
DM BOŚ
quickly responded with an identical offer, matching mBank’s zero-commission ETF
trading on retirement accounts with the same February deadline. “We
understand investors’ expectations and want to provide attractive investment
conditions,” said DM BOŚ representatives, though they expressed concern
about the direction of fee competition in Poland’s retail investment market.
The fee
reductions represent a significant shift from standard Polish brokerage
pricing, where ETF commissions typically match stock trading fees around 0.39%
of transaction value. Only BM Alior had previously offered zero-commission ETF
trading.
Private Markets
Access Might Add Differentiation
Trade
Republic’s expansion into wealth management through its new private
markets offering , announced today (Monday), could provide
additional competitive advantages in Poland. The platform now allows
retail investors to access private equity and private credit funds from
Apollo and EQT with minimum investments of just €1, compared to
typical institutional minimums of €10,000.
“Long-term
wealth creation is more than just an ETF savings plan. It’s about the
combination of various asset classes,” Hecker explained.
The company plans to roll out two additional asset classes over the
coming months, each 30 days apart.
The private
markets expansion addresses
a key limitation in most retail portfolios, which typically focus
only on public stocks and ETFs despite private companies representing 88%
of the overall economy. Trade Republic offers monthly liquidity
through its internal marketplace, versus the quarterly redemptions typical of
private market funds.
Polish customers
can also access Trade Republic’s Visa card with 1% cashback on purchases,
deposited directly into investment savings plans. The platform operates as
a fully licensed European bank under German financial regulator BaFin
supervision, with Polish operations regulated by the country’s financial
authority KNF.
German
digital bank Trade Republic has launched operations in Poland last week,
marking its first expansion outside the eurozone and setting up a
direct challenge to established players like XTB in the country’s
growing retail investment market.
The move
comes when Trade Republic also announced a major expansion into private
markets through partnerships with Apollo Global Management and EQT, giving
the platform additional competitive firepower as it targets Poland’s 38
million consumers.
Trade
Republic entered Poland with a savings account offering 4.25% annual
interest, matching the Polish central bank’s deposit rate, along with a
flat trading fee of 4 zlotys per transaction. For comparison, XTB
offers 4.1% promotional interest rate and 1.85% standard rate
The newcomer
highlighted Poland’s severe retirement funding gap, noting only 3% of the
population feels confident about having sufficient retirement funds,
the lowest level across the entire EU.
Christian Hecker, co-founder of Trade Republic
“Our
mission is to democratize wealth across Europe,” said
Christian Hecker, co-founder of Trade Republic.
“With our launch in Poland, we demonstrate that we can bring
this vision to life also beyond the Eurozone”.
The
German fintech provides Polish customers with local IBAN accounts,
direct trading in zloty, and access to over 10,000 stocks, ETFs, and
cryptocurrencies with no foreign exchange fees. Initially, the Polish
stock offering will be limited to the 100 most actively traded
domestic shares. Earlier this year, Italian
customers received a similar offer, where Trade Republic also wants to
bridge the “pension gap.”
While Trade Republic charges a flat commission, which XTB doesn’t do up to €100,000, the Polish fintech bills a foreign exchange fee of 0.5%, which can be considered a “hidden” fee when trading outside the local Warsaw Stock Exchange. XTB therefore works out cheaper up to a rather modest amount of 800 zloty, above which Trade Republic may be more cost-effective for retail traders interested in foreign ETFs and stocks.
Join IG, CMC,
and Robinhood in London’s leading trading industry event!
Competition Intensifies
for XTB
Trade
Republic’s arrival adds pressure on XTB, which recently overtook mBank to
become Poland’s largest brokerage by account numbers with nearly 615,000
accounts as of August 22025. The publicly-listed Polish broker has
dominated new account acquisitions, capturing 335,000 clients in the last year.
However,
Trade Republic brings significant scale with
over 10 million customers across 18 European markets and €150 billion in
assets under management. The platform has achieved profitability
over the past two years and counts Sequoia Capital and Peter Thiel’s
Founders Fund among its investors.
Kamil Szymański, the Head of Trade Republic Poland
Kamil Szymański,
who previously developed ETF offerings at mBank’s brokerage arm, will lead
Trade Republic’s Polish market development. “Poland is one of the
fastest-growing economies in Europe, yet households remain structurally
under-invested and face a growing pension gap,” Szymański said
in Polish media reports.
Revolut
is also breathing down XTB’s neck. Although the company isn’t included in
official statistics on the number of brokerage accounts in Poland due to its
Lithuanian registration, 590,000 people in the country currently use the
Revolut Invest service, just 25,000 fewer than XTB.
Local Brokers Slash Fees
in Response to Competition
The arrival
of Trade Republic has intensified an already heated pricing war among Polish
brokers, with established players scrambling to match competitive offerings on
investment costs.
Just days
before Trade Republic’s Polish launch, mBank’s brokerage arm sparked the fee
battle by eliminating commissions on ETF trading within IKE and IKZE retirement
accounts through February 28, 2026. The move targeted foreign-listed ETFs,
where mBank previously charged 0.29% commission (minimum 14 zlotys) but now
only applies a 0.1% foreign exchange fee.
DM BOŚ
quickly responded with an identical offer, matching mBank’s zero-commission ETF
trading on retirement accounts with the same February deadline. “We
understand investors’ expectations and want to provide attractive investment
conditions,” said DM BOŚ representatives, though they expressed concern
about the direction of fee competition in Poland’s retail investment market.
The fee
reductions represent a significant shift from standard Polish brokerage
pricing, where ETF commissions typically match stock trading fees around 0.39%
of transaction value. Only BM Alior had previously offered zero-commission ETF
trading.
Private Markets
Access Might Add Differentiation
Trade
Republic’s expansion into wealth management through its new private
markets offering , announced today (Monday), could provide
additional competitive advantages in Poland. The platform now allows
retail investors to access private equity and private credit funds from
Apollo and EQT with minimum investments of just €1, compared to
typical institutional minimums of €10,000.
“Long-term
wealth creation is more than just an ETF savings plan. It’s about the
combination of various asset classes,” Hecker explained.
The company plans to roll out two additional asset classes over the
coming months, each 30 days apart.
The private
markets expansion addresses
a key limitation in most retail portfolios, which typically focus
only on public stocks and ETFs despite private companies representing 88%
of the overall economy. Trade Republic offers monthly liquidity
through its internal marketplace, versus the quarterly redemptions typical of
private market funds.
Polish customers
can also access Trade Republic’s Visa card with 1% cashback on purchases,
deposited directly into investment savings plans. The platform operates as
a fully licensed European bank under German financial regulator BaFin
supervision, with Polish operations regulated by the country’s financial
authority KNF.