The author deals with banking services rendered to individuals (so called retail banking).

The article presents findings of related research and opinions that have appeared in world and Polish literature in recent years. The author starts with presenting key current developments in the retail financial services market. Their common feature is that financial institutions show much concern about meeting most differentiated needs of customers.

Subsequently, a definition of loyalty of an individual customer and its impact on modern market strategies of financial institutions, and in particular banks, are stated. The author devotes particularly large place to factors that affect most extensively the level of loyalty. These are the following: the scope of services, their quality, and the manner of distribution.

The second part of the article discusses the nature of individual customers' loyalty towards banks operating in Poland. Again a synthetic and analytical was applied. First, characteristic of the Polish market of financial services for individuals was presented, and then, basic features and prerequisites of customers' loyalty were discussed.

One can expect that in the near future also in Poland the success of many banks will depend to a much extent on the level of their orientation on customers' needs, while global conditions will replace the local ones.