Polish payment fintech BLIK enters Romania
BLIK, a leader in the payment system market in Poland, said on March 8 that it is also launching in Romania, the second largest market in Central and Eastern Europe.
The newly established company, BLIK Romania, will develop a digital payment system in RON “which will provide a number of major benefits, including high security and simplification of payments by generating and using an individual six-digit code for each transaction,” the company said. .
As part of BLIK Romania’s business strategy, the company plans to introduce BLIK code payments in all sales channels: e-commerce, POS and ATM. In the first phase, the system operator will focus on implementing the solution in e-commerce.
“BLIK is designed to meet the expectations of both banks and payment providers in international markets. We chose Romania because it is among the countries with the fastest economic growth in Europe. Using our own expertise and the right business model, we are ready to develop in Romania a modern and unique mobile payment system as well,” said Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, chairman of BLIK Romania and chairman of the Polish payment standard, BLIK mobile payment operator.
BLIK Romania was entered in the commercial register at the beginning of December last year. In March 2023, the BLIK Romania board headed by Ryszard Drużyński, board president, will submit an application to the Romanian National Bank (BNR) for approval of the BLIK payment system in RON. Once the legal approval from the regulator has been obtained and operations have started, the BLIK payment system will be settled in Romanian lei and available to all acquirers and issuers who have an open BNR account with access to the ReGIS system, the company explained in its press release.
“Romania has one of the most important digital economies in Central and Eastern Europe. Mobile banking and e-commerce are at a very high level of development, and customers are ready and willing to use modern payment services. According to Statista, the number of e-commerce users in Romania is will increase by 16%, up to almost 11 million by 2025, which means a real development potential for BLIK,” said Ryszard Drużynski, President of the Board of BLIK Romania.
BLIK is a payment system available in mobile banking applications, connected to a bank account that does not require the user to have a physical or virtual card. It allows payment in online shops and traditional payment terminals, as well as cash withdrawals from ATMs.
Payment via BLIK involves generating a unique six-digit code valid for two minutes in the bank’s application, which is then entered online, in a terminal or ATM to initiate the transaction. Each transaction must be confirmed in the bank’s mobile application.
In Poland, BLIK has become a leading payment method. During the 8 years of presence in this market, the fintech attracted a significant number of active and loyal users – about 26 million mobile apps are already registered in the BLIK system, and almost 13 million BLIK users make payments regularly every month. From 2015 to the end of 2022, almost 2.8 billion transactions worth 78.7 billion euros were completed in the system.
The brand is owned by the Polish Payment Standard and part owner of the largest banks in Poland.
(Photo source: Piotr Adamowicz | dreamstime.com)
