After the fall of communism in Poland, the bank played a key role in the Foreign Debt Service Fund scandal,[citation needed] which had a negative impact on the Polish economy during the early 1990s.

During this period, the bank's turnover fluctuated at the level of 2 billion rubles, which was greater than the sum of the then budget of the Russian Empire.

During World War II, the bank's branches in the areas annexed by Germany were liquidated, while those in the General Government operated under the strict control of the occupation authorities.

As one of the three banks which escaped formal nationalization after the war, it was subjected to controls of a government commissioner and the state took a significant amount of shares.

[2] This resulted as a consequence of the construction of the then-largest Polish financial institutional network of correspondent banks, opening a branch in London, foreign representative offices in New York City, Moscow, Belgrade, Rome and Berlin, and affiliation in Vienna, Luxembourg and Frankfurt.

An inspection of the bank by the Supreme Audit Office (Poland), led by Inspector Halina Ładomirska in 1991-1992 revealed numerous irregularities.

The report shows that during the period of foreign exchange market control, they were operated to the detriment of the Polish economy with estimated losses during these two years of 5-10 billion dollars.