Bank Polski, although a private institution, was the issuing bank of the Polish currency. It also had numerous branches throughout the country. It therefore invested in new buildings for these branches. One of these was a building in Baranowicze.

The banks of the Second Republic operated within three sectors - state, private and cooperative. Among these institutions was one of an unusual nature - Bank Polski SA. Although it was a private institution, it played a key role in the state's economic policy as the issuing bank of the Polish currency. This was because it took over this function in 1924 after the then liquidated Polska Krajowa Kasa Pożyczkowa (PKKP). Formally, Bank Polski remained a joint-stock company until the end of the interwar period, but in reality by the late 1930s it was almost completely nationalised.

Bank Polski's investments
Most of the new banking edifices in the interwar years were built by institutions in the state sector, which were far superior to private banks in terms of financial standing. The latter had less capital and were much more vulnerable to perturbations in the unstable economic climate of the Second Republic.

Bank Polski was an exception against this background - it had around fifty branches across the country. Most of them were located in acquired buildings, including pre-war banking facilities (e.g. the head office was located in the former Russian State Bank building in Warsaw). The bank also undertook investment activities, with a particular focus on the eastern provinces. Between 1924 and 1932, new buildings were erected for branches in Brest-on-the-Bug, Pinsk, Lutsk, Baranowicze and Hrodna, as well as in Białystok, Zamość, Jasło, Królewska Huta (currently Chorzów), Gdynia, Ostrów Wielkopolski and Bielsko-Biała.

Designer of Bank Polski's field branch buildings
. Bank Polski had its own design office. This function was performed by the Technical Department of the Administrative Department, headed by the Warsaw architect Stanisław Filasiewicz (1881-1944), the author of almost all the designs of the field branches.

Filasiewicz was a graduate of the Zurich Polytechnic and the Lviv Polytechnic School. Before 1914, he had served in the Galician Land Department (the central body of the autonomous Galician administration), and in the early 1920s he headed the Technical Department for the Construction of Public Common Schools at the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment. In 1924 he became chief architect of the Bank of Poland and held this position until the end of the interwar years. In addition to a number of field branches, he designed, among other things, residential houses for Bank Polski officials in Warsaw, Łódź, Sosnowiec, Kielce, Vilnius and Włocławek.

Bank Polski in Baranovichi - architecture of the building
Completed in 1929, the building of the Bank of Poland in Baranovichi is one of the typical examples of a field branch of this institution. The functional programme was always similar and included a vestibule, an operating room, the director's office with a waiting room, a meeting room, a treasury with a pre-treasury and an archive. The residential area with the accommodation of the branch director, clerks and ushers and the utility rooms (boiler room, laundry, cellars, etc.) was also a constant feature. The layout of the rooms was also always governed by the same principle. The ground and second floors housed the living quarters, while the banking space was placed at first-floor level. In this way, the treasury was protected by bank officials who lived in the surrounding premises.

When designing the Baranovichi branch, Stanislav Filasiewicz used a representative formula of neoclassicism, suitable for such a serious institution as a bank. The body of the building consists of a main body and symmetrically flanking wings set back at an angle of several degrees. The main body is supported by monumental pilasters with stylised composite capitals, closed by a beam. Above the main entrance there was a supraporta (a decorative space above the door) by painter Stefan Dauksza (1895- after 1941), depicting a stylised Polish eagle. The elevations of the side wings are left without vertical articulation. The repertoire of classicist forms is limited to a rather prominent cornice and simple window bands. The rear elevation is also solved in a utilitarian manner.

The Bank of Poland building today
. The building still serves a banking function today. It currently houses the local branch of the National Bank of Belarus. The building has been preserved in good condition. In the post-war years, only the relief of the eagle above the entrance was removed. Today in its place is a plaque with the name of the institution.