Polish investment funds end 2025 with PLN 488 billion in assets. Result from operations more than doubles

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data – “Financial Results of Investment Funds in 2025”, Enterprises Department, 16 July 2026.

As at 31 December 2025, the total value of assets held by investment funds amounted to PLN 488,132.4 million, 14.0% more than a year earlier. This was the fifth consecutive year of market growth, although the pace and direction of change varied significantly by fund type.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.

Closed-ended funds lose ground to open-ended funds

The most important structural change in 2025 concerned not the total value of assets, but their distribution among the different types of funds. Assets held by open-ended investment funds reached PLN 218,769.8 million, an increase of 31.0%, while their share of total assets rose from 39.0% to 44.8%. Assets held by specialised open-ended investment funds amounted to PLN 155,623.9 million, up 38.2%, and their share of total assets increased to 31.9%, compared with 26.3% a year earlier. The situation was entirely different for closed-ended investment funds: their assets fell to PLN 113,738.7 million, down 23.3%, while their market share contracted from 34.7% to 23.3%.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.

The direction of this change was not accidental. In 2025, open-ended and specialised open-ended funds responded to growing retail demand for liquid and easily accessible investment products. Meanwhile, the closed-ended fund market – historically also used for tax optimisation and investment structuring – contracted for another consecutive year, largely under the influence of regulatory and tax changes introduced in previous years.

Balance sheet: more assets traded on active markets

Investments traded on active markets were the largest component of investment funds’ total assets. At the end of December 2025, their value stood at PLN 297,125.4 million, up 35.8% year on year, while their share of total assets increased to 60.9%, compared with 51.1% a year earlier. Investments not traded on active markets were the second-largest item, at PLN 166.5 billion, 12.8% more than a year earlier. Investment fund liabilities rose to PLN 37,255.0 million, up 5.8%, while net assets reached PLN 450,877.3 million, 14.8% more than at the end of 2024.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.

Portfolio structure: debt still dominates, but equities are growing faster

The value of investment fund portfolios at the end of December 2025 increased by 26.5% to PLN 462,805.0 million. Debt securities remained the largest single category, reaching PLN 275,565.8 million, up 30.8%, while equities increased to PLN 89,876.9 million, a rise of 28.4%. Investments in participation units issued by foreign collective investment institutions amounted to PLN 31,958.8 million, up 22.8%, while receivables stood at PLN 20,304.3 million, an increase of 11.7%. Debt securities and equities accounted for 59.5% and 19.4% of total investments respectively, compared with 57.6% and 19.1% a year earlier. Fund portfolios therefore shifted slightly towards equities, although bonds continued to dominate by a wide margin.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.

Income statement: record revaluation gains on investments

Investment income generated by investment funds amounted to PLN 22,873.0 million in 2025, 18.5% more than a year earlier. Interest income was the largest component, at PLN 14,474.7 million, representing 63.3% of total investment income. Dividends and other profit distributions amounted to PLN 2,615.7 million, compared with PLN 2,388.4 million a year earlier. Investment fund costs rose more sharply, increasing by 42.4% to PLN 10,618.8 million. This included PLN 5,077.4 million in remuneration paid to fund management companies, up 21.7%. Rising costs are a natural consequence of the growing asset base on which management fees are charged.

Another item had the decisive impact on the annual result: realised and unrealised gains on investments amounted to PLN 35,411.6 million, compared with PLN 8,872.4 million in 2024 – almost four times as much. This reflected both realised gains on the disposal of investments, which reached PLN 14,232.5 million, up 49.1%, and, above all, a sharp increase in unrealised valuation gains. The latter moved from a negative PLN 675.1 million in 2024 to a positive PLN 21,179.1 million in 2025. As a result, investment funds reported a positive result from operations of PLN 47,702.6 million in 2025. Open-ended funds accounted for PLN 18,884.0 million, specialised open-ended funds for PLN 16,300.4 million and closed-ended funds for PLN 12,518.2 million.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data. When quoting Statistics Poland data, please include the statement: “Source: Statistics Poland”. When publishing calculations based on data released by Statistics Poland, please include the statement: “Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data”.

A two-decade perspective: a market that survived three crises

Over the past seventeen years, the value of assets held by Polish investment funds has moved through several distinct market cycles – from the sharp collapse during the 2008–2009 global financial crisis, through the correction in 2018, to the decline caused by interest-rate increases in 2022. The 2025 figure marks an all-time high for this series.

Source: Statistics Poland. Author’s own calculations based on Statistics Poland data.

What this means for investors and fund management companies

For investment fund management companies, 2025 primarily brought an increase in the asset base on which management fees are charged. This explains the marked 21.7% rise in remuneration paid to management companies, which reached PLN 5,077.4 million. For investors, however, another signal is more important: the nearly fourfold increase in realised and unrealised gains on investments shows that the 2025 result was driven largely by a recovery in equity and bond valuations, rather than solely by inflows of new capital. This distinction matters when assessing the sustainability of the year’s performance. Part of the PLN 47.7 billion result from operations consisted of unrealised gains that could partly reverse if conditions in financial markets deteriorate. The shift of assets from closed-ended funds to open-ended and specialised open-ended funds also suggests that investors in 2025 favoured liquidity and transparency over the more complex structures typically associated with closed-ended investment funds. This article does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell investment fund units. Every investment decision requires an assessment of the investor’s individual circumstances and risk profile.