Polish Bank Debuts Mobile Payments Service (March 14, 2013)
March 14, 2013
PKO Bank Polski has launched a new mobile payment service for use at POS, online, ATMs and for P2P money transfer. The system, known as IKO, is available as a free app for Android and iOS-based smartphones and will soon expand to BlackBerry, Symbian, Java and Windows Phone, according to the Polish bank. And while NFC capability is not currently supported it will be included in the future.
The bank’slong-term vision for the service is for it to become the new local payments standard, including for those who don’t hold accounts with the bank. Currently, IKO can be used at Bank Polski’s ATMs, along with retail payment terminals at merchants including the CoffeeHeaven and Costa Coffee chains. IKO is based on the mobile financial services platform of Stockholm-based Accumulate.
“As new technical solutions and new customer needs appear, we will create and add new functions to the app, including such payments as: parking tickets; city transport fares; shopping coupons; loyalty programs, or even securities brokerage and investment services,” said Wojciech Bolanowski, director of the electronic banking division and the mobile payments project leader for PKO.
IKO’s debut comes five months after it was announced by mobile network operator Orange, MasterCard and mobile bank mBank that the trio would expand the Orange Cash NFC-based payment system to Poland, marking what Orange claims is the first full-scale NFC payment service in the country.
