New IKO: The Power of Mobile Banking

“The latest version of IKO is another step to full mobile banking access for clients. It is also the next step to the omnichannel model. For more than seven years now, we have been releasing mobile device solutions which are currently used by more than 1.5 million clients of the Bank,” said Jacek Obłękowski, Vice President of the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski.

“Our main objective in creating the new IKO was to provide a complete ‘bank-in-the-pocket’ mobile solution to our clients. We focused on equipping the application with functionalities available in online transactional systems including BLIK payment functionalities,” said Michał Macierzyński, Project Business Manager and Deputy Director of the Mobile and Online Banking Centre.

Convenience and ease of use were the priority in the development of the application. The new IKO concept emerged from evolving trends in mobile application design, including service mechanisms specific to different operating systems. With simple solutions and minimalist design, the key banking functions are prominently featured: easy navigation gives easy access to the key functionalities right after login. The new interface supports easy and convenient banking directly from the IKO main screen, including balance information, account history, payment orders and an overview of all of the client’s products.

The new application allows users to gain convenient access to the banking services which they already use and to buy with ease selected products offered by the bank. These include cash loans. The new IKO also offers the option of customising the user’s setting including balance information available before login and on the BLIK payment screen.

Activation of the new version of the IKO application is quick and intuitive, as users are not required to confirm their identity with the bank’s call centre. Clients can complete the process on their own at any time and place as soon as the client’s data stored in the bank’s system include the number of the mobile phone on which IKO has been installed.

To use the new IKO version on phones with the operating system Android 4.0, iOS 7.0, and Windows Phone 8.1, or higher, simply upgrade your mobile application by downloading the update from your application store (Google Play, App Store, or Windows Phone Store). The application need not be reactivated. The activation process is automatic for those clients who have checked that option. The previous IKO version will be supported for phones with earlier versions of the operating systems (for details, see the technical requirements).

IKO came to the market in March 2013. The application later evolved; new functionalities were added in June 2015: topping up prepaid phones, previewing the details of standing orders, cards (including repayment of credit card debt) and loans, and sending requests for payments to other application users. According to statistics, the number of application users has been steadily growing. It has more than 370 thousand users, 85 percent of whom are customers of PKO Bank Polski, 10 percent are Inteligo clients, and 5 percent are users of the IKO e-wallet. Since the launch of the application, its users have completed more than 4.2 million transactions and opened nearly 15 thousand mobile deposits. The most popular functionalities include payments to a bank account and a mobile number, as well as cash withdrawals from ATMs.

Four months after the launch of IKO, six banks acting on the initiative of PKO Bank Polski signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a Polish mobile payment standard. As a result, BLIK launched in February 2015. The efforts made to develop the mobile payment system and their output have been recognised well beyond Poland. The project named “From IKO to BLIK” has won the Efma Distribution & Marketing Innovation in Retail Financial Services Awards. Efma is an organisation of more than 3.3 thousand financial institutions in 130 countries. The Awards go to the best and most innovative projects in retail financial services globally. No less than 500 projects of 200 banks in 59 countries were enrolled. The project “From IKO to BLIK” won in the Best Innovation in Payments category against 52 contestants. The co-operation of competitors, a long-term vision, and the ability to develop in-house state-of-the-art solutions are the main reasons why bankers from around the world decided that the project which converted the IKO mobile payment system developed by PKO Bank Polski into BLIK – the market standard in payments – is the best innovation in payments.

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PKO Bank Polski is a leader of the Polish banking sector. After three quarters of 2015, PKO Bank Polski Group posted a consolidated net profit of PLN 2 165 million. PKO Bank Polski ranked #1 with six stars in the overall classification in the Forbes magazine Best Corporate Bank ranking. The Bank ranked #3 in the Banking Quality 2013 ranking of TNS Polska and Puls Biznesu. The Bank’s Contact Center, for the sixth time in a row, was a winner in a regular survey of banks’ hotlines carried out by ARC Rynek i Opinia. The Bank won for another consecutive year in the ranking of the top 50 banks in Poland published by the financial monthly Bank. PKO Bank Polski won this year’s edition of the ranking in the category of Property Financing Banks and ranked third among Consumer Finance Banks. PKO Bank Polski was awarded for the implementation of the IKO application in the Electronic Banking and E-Finance category of the 12th edition of the Financial Institutions IT Leader 2013  competition of Gazeta Bankowa. PKO Bank Polski was also awarded for its Innovation Centre in the category Back Office Systems. Around a dozen financial institutions, mainly representing the banking and insurance industry, competed for the IT Leader award. The jury of the Competition of the 8th E-Economy Congress awarded PKO Junior in the Project of the Year category. PKO Bank Polski also enjoys the strongest image among Polish banks. According to a prestigious magazine The Banker which values PKO Bank Polski’s brand name at USD 1.25 billion, the Bank remains the most valuable brand in Polish banking sector. According to the ranking of the Most Valuable Polish Brands 2013 by Rzeczpospolita daily, PKO Bank Polski remained the most valuable brand in the financial industry category, valued at PLN 3.7 billion. In 2012, the Jury of the Banking Leaders Competition, organised as a part of the Polish Economic Congress, awarded PKO Bank Polski as the Best Bank and the Most Innovative Bank for the new offer of School Saving Associations. In rankings based on students’ opinions, the Bank was ranked as one of the best employers in Poland. The Bank’s high position is also confirmed by surveys carried out by the international company Universum Global and AIESEC among students of Poland’s best universities. PKO Bank Polski is also a winner of the Golden Banker 2013 award in the Best Mortgage Loan and the Financial Innovation categories for its IKO application.