424 million transactions worth PLN 57 billion in 2020: BLIK is picking up speed

In the last quarter of 2020, Polish BLIK users performed 140 million transactions, with over 420 million throughout the year. At the end of the year, 7 million people were actively using the mobile payment system. The total value of transactions in the fourth quarter was nearly PLN 19 billion, while the year closed out with PLN 57 billion. BLIK is available to virtually all mobile banking customers, it can be used not only in the entire Polish e-commerce, but also in a growing number of global platforms. Currently, apart from e-commerce, a rapidly growing feature is transferring money to a phone number, i.e. the ability to transfer money instantly between users.

A record quarter

Out of the record 140 million transactions carried out in a single quarter, as many as 105.5 million were purchases via e-commerce. This is twice as much as in the corresponding period of 2019. Online transactions account for three-quarters of all BLIK operations. According to the estimates of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK's share in all e-commerce payments on the Polish market exceeds 60 percent.

The second most frequently used channel among users are transfers to the BLIK telephone number. The year-on-year increase in this category is as much as 167%. The total number of transactions was 15.5 million (compared to almost 6 million a year earlier). At this time ten banks are already offering their customers the option to immediate transfer money from account to account without having to enter a bank account number.

and adds: We predict that transfers to a telephone number may soon become the main form of transferring money between people.

In the last quarter of last year, transactions through traditional payment terminals were also very popular among BLIK users. These increased significantly in the second half of the year - in the third and fourth quarters, nearly 12 million transactions were made through this channel. That’s about 80 percent more than in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The decreased interest of users in cash payments is evidenced by the number of BLIK transactions at ATMs. In the last three months of the year, there were 7.1 million of them. Although this is a slight increase year on year and in the fourth quarter there were fewer such transactions than in the previous quarter, the share of BLIK in ATM transactions is systematically growing. Withdrawals and deposits at ATMs accounted for 5 percent of all BLIK transactions. It is worth noting that before 2019, ATMs were second, after e-commerce, where BLIK was most often used.

In the fourth quarter, Poles made an average of 1.5 million BLIK transactions every day. The record number of daily transactions is nearly 2.4 million.

The value of all transactions made with BLIK in the last three months of 2020 amounted to almost PLN 19 billion, and at the end of the year the number of active users reached 7 million people. People who make at least one transaction each month of the quarter are considered active, but those who only make transfers to the phone number are not included.

According to a survey conducted by KANTAR Polska, in the fourth quarter of 2020 BLIK received 62 points in the NPS index. This means that users are very happy to recommend the brand to their friends. For comparison - the average NPS score for the financial industry is 18 points. BLIK is most often recommended for the speed of payment, convenience and ease of use, as well as security. In the original KANTAR methodology (MDS Meaningful, Different Salient) for measuring brand strength (Brand Equity), in the so-called Brand Power Index, BLIK received 41 percent in the fourth quarter. (an increase of 6 pp y/y), ahead of brands such as VISA (25%), Mastercard (19%), G-Pay (6%), Revolut (5%) and Apple Pay (4%).).

and adds: BLIK simplifies finances, makes the experience positive and pleasant, and also provides a very good UX, which makes it such a widely recommended service.

The best year in BLIK history

Throughout 2020, BLIK recorded 424 million transactions, which is almost twice as many as in 2019. In total, since the system was launched in February 2015, users have completed 777 million transactions.

We are very quickly approaching the first billion BLIK transactions, which will be a kind of symbolic achievement for us after 6 years of our presence on the market. The total value of BLIK transactions from February 2015 to the end of 2020 amounted to nearly PLN 105 billion. We have become the undisputed leader in e-commerce. According to the NBP data, the number of online transactions is already more than twice as high as those made with cards, stresses Dariusz Mazurkiewicz and adds, Our ambitions go further, which is why we continue to work hard to ensure that BLIK can be used to pay anywhere in the world, wherever our users want to shop. 

About BLIK:

BLIK is a nationwide, universal payment standard. Currently, over 95% of all customers of domestic financial institutions in Poland have the option of using BLIK on mobile banking applications. The Polish Payment Standard (Polski Standard Płatności - PSP) is responsible for developing the system. PSP is constantly developing BLIK's capabilities so that the system is as functional as possible for its users. The shareholders of PSP are six Polish banks: Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank and PKO Bank Polski and Mastercard. BLIK can also be used by clients of Getin Noble Bank, Bank Pekao S.A, BNP Paribas, Credit Agricole, Inteligo, T-Mobile Financial Services, cooperative banks associated in Spółdzielcza Grupa Bankowa,  Bank BPS and cooperative banks associated BPS Group.

For more information please contact:

Marek Gieorgica

BLIK Press Office

E-mail: mg@clearcom.pl