From IKO to BLIK – best innovation in payments worldwide

The prestigious competition "Distribution & Marketing Innovation in Retail Financial Services" has been held for the third time. It is a joint initiative from Efma - an organization bringing together more than 3,3 thousand retail financial services companies from over 130 countries and Accenture, a company providing management consulting, technology and outsourcing services. The competition rewards the best and most innovative projects in retail financial services and marketing in the world.

500 projects were submitted to the contest by 200 banks from 59 countries around the world. Projects are evaluated in ten categories by the Awards Committee composed of dozens of board members of the largest retail banks in the world, as well as in an online vote by the members of the organization. "From IKO to BLIK” won the Best Innovation in Payments category, beating 52 competitors.

- We are proud that an innovation created by PKO Bank Polski in cooperation with leading banks in Poland, became the countrywide mobile payments standard and was recognized today by specialists from all over the world. Banks, which are developing the payments standard, give a good example of cooperation and understanding for the benefit of all customers in Poland. The growing number of BLIK users confirms that the customers also appreciate the application. We believed from the beginning that this solution would succeed - said Zbigniew Jagiello, President of the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski.

- The award, granted by authority figures from the financial market, acknowledges our common effort to implement the open mobile payment system BLIK based on the IKO solution. It is a big day for us, especially that representatives of the banking and financial industry from around the world voted for us. Together with our partners we want to further develop and popularize BLIK, as a functional, comfortable, safe, and universal payment method. This is just the beginning, but I hope that we will be consistently and systematically expanding our partners network, both among bank - participants and companies, ensuring the development of the acceptance network - says Grzegorz Dlugosz, President of the Management Board of Polski Standard Płatności

BLIK, which rose from the IKO application developed by PKO Bank Polski, in less than a year, became the first universal mobile payment system in Poland. It has currently over 1 million users, and since its launch (in February 2015) has performed more than 1 million transactions. The system is universal and open, which means that other banks can join it on a voluntary basis. The founders of Polski Standard Płatności are Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Bank Zachodni WBK, ING Bank Śląski, mBank and PKO Bank Polski. Yet this year, other banks will become the system partners, including Getin Bank and neoBank.

To use BLIK, it is enough to find it in a mobile application of any of the bank - founders of the system. When making a purchase, select BLIK as a form of payment, enter a one-time, six-digit code on the terminal or computer and accept it on your phone. Today, more than one million customers of these banks use BLIK, paying in more than 130 thousand payment terminals in shops, cafés, service outlets and online stores or by withdrawing cash from over 12.5 thousand ATMs.

Detailed information on Efma is available on www.efma.com. For over 30 years the organization brings together bankers and insurers from around the world, provides a platform to share experience in retail finance innovations, promotes the best practices and collaboration.

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PKO Bank Polski – is the undisputed leader of the Polish banking sector. In 2014, the Bank generated consolidated net profit in the amount of PLN 3.25 billion, and the value of its balance sheet total reached PLN 255.5 billion at the end of the first half of 2015. In total, PKO assets increased by PLN 100 billion over the last five years through both organic growth and the merger with Nordea Bank Polska, assessed as one of the best-executed mergers on the market. Thanks to the effective implementation of the growth strategy PKO Bank Polski is the highest ranked Polish company in the latest edition of the Forbes Global 2000 that includes the largest listed companies in the world. PKO is also the most valuable brand on the Polish financial market, valued at PLN 3.6 billion by the Rzeczpospolita daily. The Bank offers the widest range of award-winning services on the market and is the primary provider of financial services to all customer segments. It has the highest market share in loans (17.8%) and deposits (17.5%). PKO is the leading bank servicing local governments. It has 20% market share in this segment’s loan financing and more than 40% share in municipal bonds. Thanks to the permanent service quality improvement the Bank continuously wins the bank hotline study carried out by ARC Rynek i Opinia. The Banker, belonging to the Financial Times, honored PKO Bank Polski with the “Bank of the Year in Poland” award in 2014.

BLIK – a universal mobile payment system is a project of Polski Standard Platnosci (Polish Payment Standard), a company founded by six Polish banks (Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Bank Zachodni WBK, ING Bank Slaski, mBank, offering its services also under the Orange Finanse brand, PKO Bank Polski and Inteligo). These Banks cover with its services approx. 60 percent clients of all financial institutions. Initially, clients of founder banks will be able to use BLIK. Though, the system allows other domestic banks and companies active in financial services market to join BLIK in a short period of time and under equal conditions. New partners to join the system at the further stage are inter alia Getin, Eurobank, NeoBank, BNP Paribas Bank Polska, Credit Agricole and Idea Bank. BLIK launch was the turning point in the development of domestic, universal payment standard based on the state-of-the-art technologies. Openness to cooperate with other financial institutions on an equal basis ensures the potential for rapid development and continuous increase of the mobile payment acceptance network, guaranteeing wide range of possibilities to the system users.

Contact for media Jacek Klukowski in Polski Standard Płatności jacek.klukowski@polskistandardplatnosci.pl