Trade Republic is expanding into private markets, offering retail access to private equity and private credit funds from Apollo and EQT with minimum investments of €1, aiming to diversify beyond traditional stocks and ETFs and address limited access to private assets for retail investors.

The platform offers a 4.25% annual interest savings account, matching the Polish central bank's deposit rate, and a flat trading fee of 4 zlotys per transaction, positioning itself competitively against XTB's interest rates and promotional offers.

Trade Republic charges a flat commission up to €100,000 and a 0.5% foreign exchange fee, which may be more cost-effective than XTB for trading foreign stocks and ETFs beyond a certain transaction size, specifically over 800 zloty.

German fintech Trade Republic has launched operations in Poland, marking its first expansion outside the eurozone and directly competing with established local brokers like XTB in Poland's growing retail investment market.

Trade Republic provides Polish customers with local IBAN accounts, direct trading in zloty, and access to over 10,000 stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies with no foreign exchange fees, initially focusing on the 100 most traded domestic shares to address Poland's significant retirement funding gap.

Kamil Szymański, with experience at mBank, leads Trade Republic's Polish expansion, emphasizing the country's under-investment and pension gap as opportunities for growth.

Trade Republic's entry has sparked a price war among Polish brokers, with firms like mBank and DM BOŚ reducing ETF trading fees and commissions, especially within retirement accounts, to attract investors.

Trade Republic's entry into Poland intensifies competition with XTB, which has become Poland's largest brokerage with nearly 615,000 accounts, while Trade Republic itself boasts over 10 million customers across 18 European markets and €150 billion in assets under management.

Revolut, another significant competitor with approximately 590,000 users in Poland, is not officially counted in brokerage statistics due to its Lithuanian registration but remains a key player in the market.

This private markets expansion includes features like monthly liquidity through an internal marketplace and plans to introduce additional asset classes, aligning with trends of providing more diversified long-term wealth creation options for retail investors.

Trade Republic operates as a fully licensed European bank supervised by BaFin and the Polish KNF, offering additional features such as a Visa card with 1% cashback to enhance its value proposition in Poland.