Pekao, the second largest Polish lender, was pressured through a recent takeover of Nordea's Polish unit because of the maneuverings of its larger competitor PKO to seek out possible acquisitions. This was confirmed by the Pekao bank's CEO Luigi Lovalio in an interview.

Lovalio made these remarks through an interview on the Saturday edition of Gazeta Wyborcza. He said, "We are looking at the market with caution. If an opportunity, that will let us to grow, appears, we will do everything to take advantage of it."

In mid- June, PKO purchased the tenth largest bank in Poland, Nordea Bank Polska. Many market sources though said that Pekao was among the potential buyers for the bank before the state controlled lender finalixed the deal.

Lovalio further said that he was expecting a small, single digit net drop in profits for 2013 after the bank had posted a 2% increase from last year's earnngs.