PARTNERSHIP TEXT – We've had a very good second quarter and the entire first half of the year. In my assessment, this proves that we effectively and quickly respond to our clients' needs and offer a truly attractive proposition, while efficiently managing our assets and costs. Thanks to this result, we can even more effectively finance the needs of the Polish economy, Polish families, and entrepreneurs, for example, by offering loans to farmers and participating in government housing support programs – says Leszek Skiba, President of Bank Pekao. – It's impossible not to mention our capital strength and the fact that we took the number 1 position in Europe in the latest EBA test. The consolidated net profit of Bank Pekao in Q2 2023 amounted to PLN 1.693 billion, which is more than three times higher than in the corresponding period of 2022 and 17 percent higher than in the first quarter of this year. Bank Pekao closed the entire first half of the year with a net profit of PLN 3.140 billion compared to PLN 1.375 billion a year earlier. The growth in the scale of operations, favorable results from all business segments, higher interest income, and lower provisions and contributions year-on-year were the main factors behind the significant profit growth. In this year's edition of the pan-European stress tests conducted by the European Banking Authority (EBA), Bank Pekao S.A. proved to be the most resilient to negative macroeconomic scenarios among the 70 entities covered by the study. As one of only two banks in the ranking, it did not record a decrease in its capital ratios under the severe scenario. According to the test results, Bank Pekao's consolidated Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratio would stand at 18.6% in 2025 under the baseline scenario with a 3-year profit of PLN 12.3 billion, and 15.4% under the severe scenario with a 3-year profit of PLN 6.4 billion. Q2 2023 saw a strong recovery in retail banking. New mortgage loan sales in the April-June period were almost twice as high as in the previous quarter, reaching PLN 1.3 billion. Favorable sales trends and participation in government housing programs offer the potential for volume growth in subsequent quarters. New cash loan sales also stood out, growing by over one-fifth quarter-on-quarter. The pace of sales growth since the beginning of the year was twice as high as the average in the banking sector. Effective customer digitalization meant that as much as 82% of these loans were sold remotely. The first half of the year set a record in terms of new current account sales for individual customers. 305,000 personal accounts were opened, 14 percent more than in the first half of last year, with over 100,000 of these being accounts for young people under 26. It is worth noting that Bank Pekao was a double winner of the prestigious Złoty Bankier ranking for the best personal account and the best child's account. The number of active mobile banking clients at Bank Pekao at the end of the half-year for the first time reached nearly 3 million people, compared to 2.6 million a year earlier, inevitably approaching the strategic goal for 2024 – 3.2 million active mobile clients. As is traditional, Bank Pekao maintained strict control over costs. The cost-to-income ratio for Q2 stood at 31%. Operating costs grew in Q2 at a pace similar to inflation, despite increases in prices and wages. A responsible approach to balance sheet management allowed Bank Pekao to keep standard risk costs under control at 51 basis points in Q2 2023. The strategic target for the end of the strategy period in 2024 is 50-60 basis points.

SPONSORED CONTENT A reactor designed in Italy, which forms the heart of the deep oil processing investment, has arrived in Lithuania. This is a key component of the hydrocracking unit. Over the next 2 weeks, it will be transported to the ORLEN Group refinery in Mažeikiai. The new unit, operational by 2025, will enable the production of more high-margin products, increasing the profitability of the Lithuanian plant and thus contributing to strengthening the energy security of the entire region. "The ORLEN Group's investment in Mažeikiai is the largest project in Poland's history implemented in Lithuania. We are proceeding according to the set schedule. The unit will significantly improve the profitability and margins of the Mažeikiai refinery, and thus make the company more independent of the volatile macroeconomic environment. This will enable further company development towards new products and extending the value chain," says Daniel Obajtek, CEO of ORLEN. The reactor, measuring over 90 meters, arrived at the port of Klaipėda at the beginning of August this year. It was then unloaded onto an 88-axle modular trailer with a length of 95 meters and a width of 6.5 meters. The total weight of the load is approximately 2200 tons, with the reactor itself weighing around 1500 tons. The transport, as planned, will commence over the weekend and will take place during nighttime hours at an average speed of 3 km/h. The route will cover a total of approximately 145 km and will run along regional roads in Klaipėda, Kretinga, Skuodas, and Mažeikiai. The transport will be carried out by Mammoet. The logistical operation will take about 2 weeks and was prepared in cooperation with the Lithuanian General Directorate of Roads. The construction of the deep oil processing unit at the Mažeikiai refinery is the largest investment project undertaken by the ORLEN Group in Lithuania to date. The undertaking is scheduled for completion by the end of 2024 and will enable an increase in EBITDA by up to approximately 68 million euros annually. This will be achieved by increasing the yield of high-margin products by up to 12 percentage points, from the current just under 72% to 84%. Currently, to produce the expected volume of fuels, ORLEN Lietuva processes up to 10 million tons of crude oil annually. After the hydrocracking unit is launched, achieving a similar fuel volume will be possible with a processing level of 8 million tons of crude oil per year.