Polish mobile payment system BLIK receives authorisation in Romania
The National Bank of Romania has authorised the operation of BLIK, following the payment system’s successful launch in Poland in 2015.
BLIK authorised in Romania
BLIK Romania submitted its authorisation application six months ago, following the system’s official launch in March of last year.
In the time since BLIK Romania has sought to adapt the system to local regulatory and legal requirements in preparation for a nationwide rollout.
With this latest decision from the central bank, BLIK is now set to facilitate transactions in the national currency. It will be accessible to all authorised payment service providers in Romania, enabling them to offer both payment transaction acceptance and electronic payment instrument issuance services.
BLIK Romania says it now plans to “gradually introduce BLIK payments across all sales channels” as part of its business strategy, with the system administrator to “focus on implementing the solution in e-commerce” during phase one.
In Poland, where BLIK was first developed by Polski Standard Płatności (PSP), e-commerce payments are said to currently account for half of all transactions.
The payment system enables users to make payments using a smartphone, facilitating a wide variety of transaction types including peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers, contactless payments in-store, and payment codes linked to banking apps.
BLIK is understood to count nearly 17 million users, a figure which was previously expedited by Polski Standard Płatności’s acquisition of P2P and business payment services provider Viamo in Slovakia in 2022.
In a statement, BLIK Romania CEO Ryszard Drużynski describes the central bank’s authorisation as “a key step in the development of BLIK in Romania”, being “one of the most important markets in the CEE region” for e-commerce growth.
“The experience gained in Poland shows that the simplicity and intuitiveness of the system not only supports the development of e-commerce but can also contribute to financial inclusion and the reduction of cash use, particularly in rural areas,” comments Drużynski.
