This article is a part of Poland Unpacked. Weekly intelligence for decision-makers
Poland’s consumer lending market has come under pressure from regulation and legal changes, but Wonga is not backing down and is preparing to accelerate. The company wants to double the scale of its business, is launching a campaign in Romania, is applying for a new license from Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and intends to make greater use of its position within the Kruk Group.
First came the “small CJEU” ruling, which forced lenders to refund fees proportionally when loans are repaid early. Then came Poland’s anti-usury legislation, which cut the cap on non-interest borrowing costs. Just as the industry was trying to come to terms with the draft of a new Consumer Credit Act, uncertainty deepened after responsibility for the legislation changed hands and work on the bill was effectively reset. As if that were not enough, in April 2026 the EU’s Court of Justice dealt the industry another blow by prohibiting lenders from charging interest on financed fees.
Such an accumulation of regulatory and legal risks has made running a lending business in Poland exceptionally difficult. Yet some companies are not merely trying to survive in these conditions but are looking for room to expand. Wonga is emerging as one of the clearest examples.
Wonga is Poland’s seventh-largest non-bank lender
Wonga’s story began in the UK in 2007, when it launched the first version of its website, allowing customers to borrow up to GBP 1,000 for 30 days. Five years later, the brand entered Poland, which at the time was the fourth market for the fast-growing British company. In the meantime, in 2018, the business in its home market found itself on the brink of bankruptcy and stopped lending. It went into administration, but Wonga’s much better-performing Polish operation stayed in business. It merely changed hands. Kruk, Poland’s leading debt-management company, acquired 100% of the shares for PLN 97.1m.
Six and a half years after the transaction, Wonga remains a significant player in the non-bank lending market. According to a Cashless.pl ranking, it is the seventh-largest lender in the sector by loan portfolio, at PLN 441.6m. Adding the portfolio of Novum, a company controlled by Wonga, would lift the total value of loans to PLN 560m, although its ranking in the sector would remain unchanged.
“We are not aiming to be number one by portfolio size. To get there, we would effectively have to start operating like a bank, issuing large loans at low margins. What we do want is to lead the market by number of active customers and to be a significant player in terms of revenue. We expect to have twice as many customers as we do today within five years, and to double revenue,” Tomasz Fedyna, Wonga’s CEO, tells us.
Over 14 years, the company has provided financing to a total of 625,000 customers. It currently has 129,000 customers with outstanding loans. By comparison, Provident has 310,000.
Wonga aims to double the number of credit-limit customers
The company offers three products: short-term loans, installment loans and a credit limit. Its core product is the installment loan. Wonga grants these for an average of 24 months, with a maximum term of 42 months. Short-term loans – with the first one offered at no cost – are an option for customers looking for straightforward financing terms and able to repay the full amount in a singlepayment. Wonga Limit, meanwhile, is intended to serve as an “insurance policy” for smaller everyday purchases.
“We primarily offer credit limits to our existing customer base. Some 10,000 customers use the product today, but we want that figure to rise to 20,000 within a year,” our interviewee says.
He adds that short-term loans are gaining in importance. The reason is straightforward: Poland’s anti-usury law has reduced the maximum non-interest cost of credit so sharply that lending over shorter periods has become more profitable. The cap on non-interest costs does not rise proportionally with the loan term, prompting other lenders to adjust their strategies in this area as well.
“Our average loan amount is still lower than the market average, but the gap is narrowing. That is because in previous years we were more conservative when assessing customers’ creditworthiness, which limited the amounts we were prepared to lend. The anti-usury law has changed that, because all market participants now lend more cautiously,” Tomasz Fedyna explains.
He expects Wonga, like the lending market as a whole, to grow its portfolio at a double-digit year-on-year rate over the full course of 2026. That would mean another record year. Whether profits will also reach a record is less clear. In 2025 they amounted to PLN 31m. There is no straightforward answer: the installment-loan portfolio builds revenue more slowly because such loans are simply cheaper. In Tomasz Fedyna’s view, 2026 should therefore be treated primarily as a year of investment in future results.
Expert's perspective
Soonly also sees potential in longer-term loans
Longer-term products allow lenders to grow their portfolios faster because the amounts involved are significantly higher than for short-term loans. They also make it easier to build a buffer against adverse legal and regulatory changes. They give lenders more time to adjust, because the existing portfolio continues to generate income while the changes are being implemented. That is much harder with short-term lending. At Soonly, we therefore want to build both sides of the business and believe this is the best model for growth in the non-bank lending market.
Synergies are creating a positive customer pathway
Wonga benefits from being part of the Kruk Group in two ways. The first is funding. Kruk is not only a highly profitable business but is also well established in markets such as corporate bonds, making it relatively easy for the group to raise capital to support further growth. The second area is lending to group customers who, after voluntarily repaying their debts, have begun to get back on their feet and want to return to the credit market. This is the area in which Novum specializes.
“We lend to customers who have a poor credit history in the broader market, but Kruk already knows that these people are getting back on track and may be ready to return to the financial market. There was an idea for debt-collection companies to report such information to BIK, Poland’s credit-information bureau, but the problem would be the scope of the data. Institutions using it would still not know whether a customer is repaying debt voluntarily or because a bailiff has seized funds in their bank account. In the latter case, granting another loan could mean that problems with voluntary repayment emerge again,” our interviewee explains.
Wonga’s CEO believes companies could do much more in this area than they do today. In his view, the hardest part for people emerging from debt is returning to a market where no institution is willing to trust them again. Group synergies could help create a positive track record: Novum could provide the initial financing and, if the customer repaid on time, Wonga itself could subsequently extend credit. Such experiences could strengthen customer loyalty and encourage borrowers to return to the group’s products. The company estimates that one in five new Wonga customers will come through Novum.
Expert's perspective
Loan values are rising faster than volumes
It is also worth noting the popularity of buy now, pay later (BNPL) services. Nearly 1.8m customers use them actively, while 3.6m people have used them at some point since the market emerged, completing 226m transactions. BNPL remains primarily a tool for financing everyday purchases, as reflected in the average transaction value of PLN 173, while more than half of all transactions, or 53.9%, do not exceed PLN 100. Most customers treat the product as a convenient and frequently used source of financing and payment.
Building brand recognition to accelerate in Romania
Outside Poland, Wonga is expanding abroad, specifically in Romania. Since 2025, local company RoCapital has operated under the Polish lender’s brand. In June, it launched a campaign to promote the name. The company has also become a sponsor of Dinamo Bucharest football club. As our interviewee notes, although Romania’s banking market is highly competitive, the non-bank segment lacks a professional player specializing in online lending. Provident, which also operates there, only recently started offering financing online, while traditional advisers still dominate its sales model.
“We are accelerating in Romania. This year and next, we want to prove that it is possible to make money in this market and become a profitable player. To achieve that, we need scale – a growing customer base and, with it, a larger loan portfolio,” Tomasz Fedyna explains.
RoCapital has operated in Romania since 2014, but for years followed a model similar to Novum’s in Poland. It now wants to expand more aggressively among external customers, meaning those with no connection to the Kruk Group. It will target both customers looking for short-term loans and those interested in installment financing. For now, it is not considering introducing credit limits there.
Wonga applies for a domestic payment institution license
Expanding Wonga Limit more aggressively would require the company to change its license to that of a domestic payment institution. At present, as a so-called small payment institution, Wonga faces restrictions including a ban on holding more than EUR 2,000 of customer funds in individual accounts. It is also unable to offer its credit-limit product in foreign markets.
To change that, the company has been going through the application process for a new license for several months. It has already submitted the full set of documents to the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) and is waiting for the process to be completed. Could that happen before the end of 2026?
“We can see that many areas in our correspondence with the KNF have already been closed, which gives us reason to hope so,” Tomasz Fedyna says.
A new license would allow Wonga to pursue expansion into new markets more ambitiously. Our interviewee notes that Kruk’s presence in individual countries can be helpful, but it is not the main factor in deciding where to expand. Far more important are the potential of a given market and the competitive landscape.
“If the Romanian business is under control and starts to scale up, we will be able to enter further markets. Central and Eastern Europe is attractive because of its cultural similarities, but there are relatively few large countries in the region. That is why we are looking much more closely at Western Europe. It is there that we can build the scale needed to operate despite the fact that our cost of capital is higher than banks’,” Wonga’s CEO explains.
Wonga’s CEO does not expect a wave of lawsuits over free-credit sanctions
International expansion has another dimension. By entering foreign markets, Wonga is becoming less dependent on local Polish laws and regulations. Meanwhile, both non-bank lenders and banks in Poland are facing growing concerns about a new wave of lawsuits in which customers seek the so-called free-credit sanction, or SKD, which allows borrowers to repay only the principal, without interest or fees. The trigger is expected to be the CJEU’s April 23 ruling in case C-744/24, which prohibited lenders from charging interest on financed costs. The Court did not, however, state that this in itself provides grounds for applying the free-credit sanction.
“On September 17, we stopped granting loans using this mechanism. It is worth remembering that the CJEU is challenging a practice that was widespread across the market, while regulators’ intentions were different from the way the Court is now interpreting them. If the state sets the standards, why should the sector be punished for having followed them?” the executive asks.
Wonga’s CEO does not expect a sharp rise in customer lawsuits. He stresses that all loans were entered into in good faith and in line with a ruling of Poland’s Supreme Court that was binding at the time. Moreover, institutions such as Wonga typically granted loans for considerably smaller amounts than banks did. That, in turn, reduces the potential financial incentive to sue a non-bank lender, especially as the case law in this area remains fairly uncertain.
Key Takeaways
- Wonga wants to double in size. CEO Tomasz Fedyna says the company plans to double both its customer base and revenue over the next five years. He estimates that one in five new customers will come through Novum, the Wonga-controlled company serving Kruk clients who have worked their way out of debt and want to return to the credit market.
- It is seeking a new license and accelerating in Romania. The company is applying for a domestic payment institution license and hopes to obtain it by the end of 2026. This would remove the need to return excess funds held in customer accounts and would also allow Wonga to introduce credit limits in foreign markets. For now, it is scaling up in Romania, but sees scope for much more ambitious expansion into large Western European markets.
- Management is not worried about a wave of lawsuits over free-credit sanctions. The company has just removed from its offer the mechanism of charging interest on financed costs, bringing its practices into line with the CJEU ruling. Management does not expect a surge in lawsuits seeking the free-credit sanction. The reason? The loans involved were relatively small, while the direction of case law in this area remains far from settled.