Behind the scenes of a lobbyist's work: What a day in the Sejm looks like
Many people think that lobbying in Poland is meetings in luxury restaurants. The truth is much less glamorous, but much more demanding. At Suprasorte Strategic Lobby, we start work when most of Warsaw is still drinking their first coffee.
The morning starts at 7:12
A lobbyist's workday in the fintech sector doesn't start at the office on Nowy Świat, but in front of a monitor screen at 7:12 AM. We then review the Government Legislation Center and the latest entries in the journals of laws. We look for specific words: 'payments', 'license', 'supervision'. In March 2024, it was at this time that we noticed a rider to the Payment Services Act that could have blocked 14 smaller technology companies within one quarter. We act quickly and precisely, so the analysis must be ready before officials enter the ministry.
At 8:45 AM we send the first memos to our clients. We don't write long essays. Facts matter, not promises. If we know that a legal change will come into force in 47 days, the client must have time to prepare IT systems. In the financial industry, a week's delay is often a loss of 124,000 zlotys. That's why our reports take the form of short points that can be read in the elevator. We focus on what will actually affect the company's balance sheet, not on legal theory.
In the fintech sector, one comma in an act can change the profitability of an entire business model overnight.
Corridors of Parliament and 6 hours of waiting
When the Sejm is working, our team spends an average of 6.4 hours a day there. This is not the time for great speeches. It is time spent on hard benches outside room 102 or 211, where the Public Finance Committee meets. We wait for the moment when the chairman allows the social side to speak. We know the corridors of the Parliament and we know that the most important arguments are made during breaks, at the water cooler. You must have 3 specific arguments ready that will fit in 45 seconds of conversation with an MP.
Last year we submitted exactly 87 legal opinions to various draft acts. Each of them was the result of hours spent observing who and how reacts to our proposals. Honestly, the coffee in the parliamentary canteen is terrible, but it is there that we often explain to politicians why their idea for regulating cryptocurrencies will hit Polish startups, not foreign exchanges. Fintech is our specialty, so we have to translate complicated algorithms into the language of benefits for the state budget.
Meetings at KNF and the Ministry of Finance
Noon is usually the time for substantive meetings with regulators. At Suprasorte Strategic Lobby, we don't believe in empty promises, so we take hard data to every meeting at the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. If we claim that the new capital requirement is too high, we show calculations from 23 different fintech companies. Officials respect specifics. In October 2024, we managed to shorten the waiting time for the interpretation of regulations by 14 days just because we provided a ready-made risk analysis template.
In a lobbyist's work, patience matters. The legislative process is not a sprint, it's an obstacle marathon. One meeting rarely changes everything. Usually, it takes a series of 4 or 5 conversations to convince decision-makers to change one harmful provision. Our record is 11 meetings within two weeks regarding the regulation on open banking. Each of these meetings lasted about 35 minutes and required full focus from us. There is no room for errors because the regulator remembers every omission.
Officials respect specifics. If you show hard data, you become a partner for conversation, not just a petitioner.
Analysis after dark
Around 5:30 PM we return to the office on Nowy Świat. This is the time for the second phase of work – writing amendments. They must be written in legal language that fits the rest of the act. If an amendment is poorly formulated, it will be rejected by the Sejm legislative bureau in 3 minutes. That's why our legal team checks every word for consistency with EU law. Since 2016, when we founded the company in Warsaw, we have learned that the devil is in the details, which fintech developers often have no idea about.
We end the day with a summary for the management boards of companies. They must know the likelihood that the act will pass in its current shape. We use our own risk scale for this. We don't promise 99.4% success, because that's unrealistic in politics. Usually, our forecasts are correct in 94.6% of cases. This allows companies to plan budgets for the next year with more peace of mind. Lobbying is largely managing uncertainty in a world where regulations change faster than exchange rates.
