Polish mobile payment system BLIK expands abroad

Polish mobile payment system BLIK, which is used by millions of people in its homeland, has moved forward with its international expansion after becoming available to customers of one of Slovakia’s largest banks. BLIK also has plans to expand to Romania.

BLIK – which allows users to make an instant payment by generating a six-digit, one-time-use code through a banking app on their phone – has been a huge success in Poland since its launch in 2015. In the first half of this year, it was used to make over one billion payments.

BLIK began its efforts to expand into Slovakia last year, following a merger with mobile payment system VIAMO. Now it has announced that Tatra, one of the country’s biggest banks, has become the first to offer payments using BLIK. As of yesterday, the bank’s customers have been able to use the service.

“BLIK is an innovative payment method that guarantees clients the best possible payment experience,” said Lukáš Mochňák, head of mobile applications at Tatra. “With its unique features – convenience, speed and security – we are fully meeting the needs of modern consumers.”

“For the past ten years, BLIK has achieved tremendous success on the Polish market, gaining the trust of millions of users,” added Lubo Požgay, CEO of BLIK’s Slovak operations. “I am convinced that this payment solution will also impress Slovaks. We are also intensively working on implementations in other banks.”

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BLIK was introduced in Poland through an initial alliance of six banks. It is now available to customers of almost all banks in the country.

The system – which can be used to make payments online, in physical stores, and also between individuals, as well as deposits and withdrawals at ATMs – was used by 16.3 million people in the first quarter of this year, reports news website Interia. Poland has a total population of around 38 million.

In the first half of 2024, BLIK was used 1.1 billion times, 40% more than in the same period a year earlier, averaging 6.1 million transactions a day – or 71 every second.

In May, Monika Król, the vice president of BLIK’s board, confirmed to financial news website Bankier.pl that the company is awaiting regulatory approval in Romania to also introduce its service there.

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.