Bank Pekao has extended its 5.70% savings account promotion indefinitely and erected a permanent queue outside every branch, a line that now stretches through three city districts and has been declared a protected pedestrian zone by the local council.
The queue operates around the clock. Customers arrive with folding chairs, thermoses and, in one case, a small dog named Kropka who has become the line's unofficial mascot. Bank staff distribute numbered tickets every morning at 4:47 a.m., though the number 4:47 was chosen because it is the exact minute the first customer once arrived in 2019.
«We are simply meeting demand,» said a bank spokesperson, standing beside a chalkboard that tracks the queue's daily length in metres. «The 5.70% rate is available to anyone who fulfils the additional conditions, which now include standing in line for no fewer than nine consecutive days and reciting the account terms from memory.»
The queue has reshaped the city. Cafes have opened along its route, a barber offers haircuts to those waiting, and the local tram has added a stop called «Savings Queue — Midpoint». The bank has hired 200 additional staff solely to walk the line and confirm that nobody has left to use the toilet.
By next week, the bank plans to install a second, parallel queue for customers who wish to queue for the right to join the first queue. A spokesperson confirmed that the 5.70% rate remains unchanged and that the maximum deposit amount depends on which variant of the account one manages to open before collapsing.