Analysis of Consumer Credit Costs in Poland Using APR Data

@misc{szymaniak2026analysis,
  author       = {Szymaniak, Tomasz},
  title        = {{Analysis of Consumer Credit Costs in Poland Using APR Data}},
  year         = {2026},
  month        = jan,
  date         = {2026-01-01},
  publisher    = {Life of Research},
  howpublished = {Preprint},
  doi          = {10.2139/ssrn.7525781},
  url          = {https://lifeofresearch.com/preprints/118},
  abstract     = {This paper examines the use of annual percentage rate (APR; Polish: RRSO) in the analysis of consumercredit costs in Poland and integrates APR-based comparison with two proprietary analytical indicators developed by procredito.pl: the Procredito Credit Index (PCI) and the Procredito Bank Score (PBS). The revised analysis uses procredito.pl as the primary platform context and removes reliance on third-party comparison datasets. As a recent market observation, PCI stood at 73.4 on 15 September 2026. PCI is designed to summarize current credit-market conditions using offer-level data, including the direction of borrowing costs and APR, while PBS evaluates the relative competitiveness of banks across standardized credit scenarios. The paper also places these platform indicators in the latest macroeconomic context available at the time of writing: the National Bank of Poland reference rate was 3.75\%, and Statistics Poland reported August 2026 CPI inflation of 3.4\% year on year on 15 September 2026. The analysis argues that APR remains the essential transaction-level comparison metric, but market interpretation improves when it is complemented by time-stamped aggregate measures and scenario-based bank scoring. The paper is descriptive and methodological; PCI and PBS are proprietary analytical tools, not regulatory metrics, credit ratings, or individualized lending recommendations.},
  keywords     = {APR, RRSO, consumer credit, Poland, PCI, Procredito Credit Index, PBS, Procredito Bank Score, cash loans, credit pricing},
  language     = {en},
  copyright    = {Creative Commons Attribution 4.0}
}