Excellent financial results for BLIK in 2020: PLN 70 million in revenue and PLN 36 million in net profit
In 2020, the Polish Payment Standard (PSP), operator of the BLIK system, broke even during the financial year - for the first time since the company’s inception achieving profit immediately and at a very high level. Year on year, revenues nearly doubled, while operating costs remained almost unchanged. The net profit at the end of the year was PLN 36 million (EUR 7.8 million), compared to a slight loss a year earlier.
In 2020, there were 424 million BLIK transactions and over 7 million active users (7.6 million at the end of the first quarter of 2021). BLIK, as a universal system, is available to all users of mobile banking applications in Poland. New participants continue to join - including global payment providers, cooperative banks, and payment fintechs new on the market.
You can pay with BLIK on all Polish online sites and the growing number of global e-commerce platforms. Transactions can be made in over 700,000 payment terminals (70 percent of all terminals in the country) and in over 20,000 ATMs (90% of devices on the market). Instant BLIK transfers to the phone have become the fastest growing types of transactions made using the mobile payment system (increase by 167% year on year).
We continue to work intensely on increasing the scope of our services and the number of active users. Excellent financial results achieved after 5 years of dynamic development provide a strong basis for further investments in areas such as contactless, global development of e-commerce payments, or in the instant payments segment, including P2P. We are the leading payment brand in Poland and the European leader in the area of mobile payments in e-commerce. The share of BLIK in all financial transactions carried out in the applications of Polish banks in 2020 reached 44%. At the end of the year, BLIK was ahead of payment cards issued by Polish banks in the number of transactions in global e-commerce - Polish and foreign. We are planning further investments in the development of BLIK in Poland and in Europe,
says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, President of the Polish Payment Standard, BLIK operator.
Polish Payment Standard’s revenues
The system operator recorded a significant increase in revenues, which in 2020 amounted to PLN 70.6 million (EUR 15.2 million) - an increase of nearly 71%. year on year (in 2019 the company generated 41.3 million revenues).
Revenues for 2020 were comparable to those achieved in the first 5 years of BLIK's presence on the market (a total of PLN 83.6 million in 2015-2019 compared to PLN 70.6 in 2020).
The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) in 2015-2020 was 91%. The Polish Payment Standard also maintained operating costs at the level of 2019 (PLN 43.6 million [EUR 9.4 million) compared to PLN 43 million [EUR 9.3 million] a year earlier).
Break-even point for the financial year
The operating figures (EBIT, i.e. profit before taxes and financial costs) of the PSP in 2020 amounted to PLN 27 million [EUR 5.9 million], compared to PLN 1.7 million [EUR 0,36 million] a year earlier.
Another important indicator showing the scale of changes to PSP financial results - EBITDA (result before tax, financial costs and depreciation) in 2020 amounted to PLN 30.5 million [EUR 6.6 million], compared to PLN 1.7 million [EUR 0.36 million] a year earlier. PSP's net profit in 2020 reached PLN 36 million [EUR 7.8 million].
BLIK system’s sources of revenues
BLIK users, customers who use the system via their bank's mobile application, do not pay any fees for the transaction. They can use it to pay online or in stationary terminals, transfer money to a telephone number, deposit and withdraw money from ATMs, as well as set up recurring payments - without any fees.
The system operator generates revenues from transaction clearing fees paid by banks and settlement agents, or transaction authorisation fees.
The increase in revenues generated by the company is due to economies of scale. We are still at the stage of increasing the transactionality and availability of BLIK. We have great potential for further growth, not only by scaling the current products in Poland and internationally, but also by offering new areas of using BLIK.
About BLIK
The BLIK mobile payment system enables Internet payments to be made, as well as payments at POS terminals, cash withdrawals from ATMs and mobile P2P payments. More than 3/4 of the transactions made with Blik are online payments, more than 9% are P2P transactions, slightly less are F2F transactions at terminals, and almost 7% are ATM withdrawals. BLIK has a dominant share of the mobile payments market in Poland.
Polish Payments Standard (PSP) id BLIK’s operator. PSP was established in February 2015 by 6 Polish banks: PKO Bank Polski S.A., Alior Bank S.A., Bank Millennium S.A., ING Bank Śląski S.A., Bank Zachodni WBK S.A. (currently Santander Bank Polska S.A.) and mBank S.A. 16 banks are currently offering the BLIK.
BLIK has won many prestigious awards, including the receipt of the title of FinTech of the Year in 2019 by Cashless.pl and FinTech of the Year 2020 by Invest Cuffs, one of Europe’s largest congresses for investors.
For more information, please contact:
Marek Gieorgica
