BLIK ready for Request for payment technological revolution

• The Polish Payment Standard (PSP) received the consent of the National Bank of Poland to introduce the “Request for payment” solution as part of the BLIK Payment Scheme.
• In the first quarter of 2020, the first banks will make available “Request for payment” to their customers based on new possibilities of the system managed by PSP.
• Interbank “Request for payment” is a solution currently being developed by payment scheme operators around the world; Poland will be one of the first countries to build an ecosystem of payment services based on request messages.
• Immediate mobile payments are already developed in Poland and are becoming increasingly popular among users.  

Making “Request for payment” available based on the interbank mobile payment system is an opportunity for banks to create completely new contexts and entire ecosystems around P2P payments. Poland is once again ahead of other countries with ready-made tools in this area. We will strongly support and popularize this segment based on BLIK. We also actively participate in its development within SEPA Proxy Lookup standard at the European level – says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator.

Request for payment is the next technological revolution 

In Europe, “Request for payment” technology is now recognized as one of the most innovative and needed by users, both individuals and businesses. Changes in the labor market (more people exercising individual orders in flexible forms of cooperation) and growing importance of cashless transactions (and demand for cashless settlements between private individuals) make this  option more desirable and expected. A report prepared by FasterPayments shows that as many as 42% of British have occasionally transferred money to an incorrect bank account number. In addition, one-fifth of Britons regularly ignore requests for money transfer in electronic and paper correspondence. At the same time, the communication channel through the bank’s mobile applications is considered one of the most reliable and secure. 

 The world’s largest banks and technology companies are racing to introduce solutions to transfer user-related payments to a single channel. This means that it is possible to request and execute a payment in one channel. Experts have no doubt that this is a breakthrough solution that will completely redefine the payment market – says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz. – Today we are ready and providing a solution that not only is expected by users, but has a huge potential for banks to create new payment functions – he adds.

The Polish Payment Standard has a technology which allows to combine, within a bank’s mobile application environment, the communication related to the request for payment with the payment executed as a result of this communication.

Currently 8 banks allow their customers to use a BLIK P2P transfer. The solution is available in Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Credit Agricole, Getin Bank, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Santander Bank Polska. More banks will join soon. This way of transferring money is becoming increasingly popular. It does not require knowledge of the recipient’s bank account number, but only the telephone number of the recipient associated with the mobile application of his bank. The money reaches the recipient immediately, even to another bank. In the first half of 2019, users used a BLIK P2P transfer more than 10 million times, and from quarter to quarter the number of transactions almost doubles. 

Ask for money through the bank’s mobile app 

“BLIK request for payment” will be the first new feature that banks will make available to mobile app users in near future. Through the bank app, you can ask another user to send money along with a description of what the settlement is about. In the nearest future, the “BLIK request for payment” will be implemented in the first two banks participating in the BLIK Mobile Payment System.

A person who uses BLIK will be able to send a transfer request to another user. The recipient will receive a notification of such a request in his bank’s mobile app. The recipient will be able to accept or reject the transaction thus putting it on hold. The request for payment will wait for the recipient to react for 72 hours. If the request is ignored, the sender will receive the notification that the recipient did not respond.

Transferring money in secure banking app environment is still gaining popularity. Mutual settlements will be even more convenient – says Marcin Waldowski, Director of the Product Development Department at the Polish Payment Standard, the operator of the BLIK system. –  Request for payment completely changes the way in which we will give back money to each other – he adds.

The service will be fully carried out in the banking mobile app ecosystem and only for logged in users. There will be no possibility to send a request to people who do not use BLIK P2P payments. This is a guarantee that we will transfer money only to the person we know and whose identity has been verified by the bank. Banks will be able to implement “BLIK request for payment” also in such a version that will allow one to send a request to several people at the same time. This solution gives the opportunity to split a larger amount in a mutual settlement. 

BLIK is a nationwide, universal mobile payments standard. More than 90% of all customers of financial institutions in Poland currently have the ability to use BLIK in mobile banking apps. Polish Payment Standard is responsible for the development of the system. PSP is constantly developing BLIK so that it is as functional as possible for its users. PSP’s shareholders are six Polish banks: Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski. BLIK can also be used by customers of Getin Bank, Bank Pekao S.A, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Inteligo, T-Mobile Financial Services and cooperative banks affiliated with the Cooperative Banking Group.