Polish Watchdog Announces Jacek Jastrzębski as New Chairman

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), Poland’s financial market regulator, announced this Friday that it has appointed a new head, Professor Jacek Jastrzębski.

Jastrzębski was appointed by the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki to his new position. He replaces Marek Chrzanowski, who stepped down from the financial regulator earlier this month following bribery charges.

Specifically, Chrzanowski was accused of seeking a multi-million dollar bribe from a bank. However, the PAP news agency said that Chrzanowski denied the reports, quoting him as saying that he was resigning out of “a sense of responsibility for the functioning of regulatory supervision over the financial sector.”

The Career of Professor Jacek Jastrzębski

Jastrzębski is at the top of the law profession in Poland, with a solid reputation in the country, the statement from KNF states. During his life, he has been both a graduate and professor at the Faculty of Law and Administration at the University of Warsaw. He also studied at Warsaw School of Economics and graduated from the law program LL.M. at the University of California, Berkeley in the United States.

Fluent in English, German, French, and Polish, Jastrzębski boasts an impressive resume. His career, while diverse, has been predominately focused in the banking sector. For more than a decade he was the deputy director of the Legal Department of the Universal Savings Bank of PKO BP, Poland's largest bank.

However, he has also pursued academic roles, spending five years as an associate professor at the Civil Law Department of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw.

During his career, he has worked in civil law, commercial law and the law of the financial market. He has co-authored more than 80 scientific publications and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences, including those focusing on financial market issues.

In fact, Poland thinks so highly of Jastrzębski that he was included on the list of "Legal 500's GC Powerlists: Central and Eastern Europe". This is a list which highlights top lawyers in Central and Eastern Europe.