From IKO to BLIK – multibanking mobile payment standard Qorus Banking Innovation Awards 2015 - Winner

In July 2013 representatives of 6 banks located in Poland (PKO Bank Polski, Alior Bank, Bank Zachodni WBK, BRE Bank, and ING Bank Slaski, Millennium Bank) agreed on a strategic cooperation in the development of the standard hereinafter called BLIK and founded formally Polish Payment Standard Ltd. This project was preceded by implementation of IKO mobile app in PKO Bank Polski in March 2013. IKO was a foundation to create Polish Payment Standard as a separate entity for further development of mobile payments. IKO allowed customers to make POS, online payments and ATM withdrawals and to generate mobile vouchers. IKO was the first application in Poland (and Europe) connected directly to user’s banking account and making possible to pay with a mobile phone. Today IKO and other mobile banking applications of banks being Polish Payment Standard members generate a digital code - BLIK - to authorize all types of mobile payments such as: POS payment, ATM withdrawal, Internet payment and vouchers. Furthermore, soon it will be possible to make P2P payments to a mobile phone number among BLIK users no matter the bank of the transfer’s recipient is and to show current account balance, transaction history and many more mobile banking features. Further development and plans include contactless technology, location based services and involvement of other banks.