BLIK joins forces with European payment systems. A pilot of euro transfers is now underway
Instantly settling a restaurant bill with friends from Portugal, Spain, Italy or the Nordic countries? Soon, this will be possible. During the Web Summit 2025 conference in Lisbon, the very first test peer-to-peer (P2P) transaction involving BLIK users was presented. A transfer was sent from the Portuguese system MB WAY to a Santander Bank Polska customer whose phone number is registered with the BLIK service.
The demonstration of a phone-to-phone transfer from Portugal and Spain to Poland marked the launch of the pilot phase of a project aimed at integrating BLIK with other European mobile payment systems, enabling users to send money directly to one another by phone number. In the initial stage, the pilot will cover the receipt of mobile transfers by BLIK users, sent by users registered with partner payment systems operating in the Europe – including Portugal’s MB WAY, and later Spain’s Bizum, Italy’s Bancomat and the Nordic Vipps. On the BLIK side, the project involves a selected group of Santander Bank Polska customers. The initiative is being developed within the EuroPA Alliance, of which BLIK has been a member since May 2025.
Launching interoperability between European mobile payment systems is an important step towards building a unified digital market and strengthening Europe’s payment sovereignty. We are responding to the needs of users whose everyday lives are becoming increasingly international. The first euro transfer to the phone number of a Polish bank customer, holding an account in złoty, is a symbolic milestone in our cooperation and the beginning of transformative change in the global mobile payments landscape
- says Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of BLIK.
Cooperation between mobile payment systems on international phone-to-phone transfers within the EuroPA network already has the potential to connect more than 100 million users across Europe. This collaboration paves the way to achieving a greater goal – providing seamless international mobile transfers to over 450 million Europeans, regardless of the country in which their bank account is held.
International phone-to-phone transfers between users of different mobile payment systems are based on the SEPA Instant scheme, which processes real-time euro transactions. The pilot programme helps identify all technical requirements that payment service providers in Poland must meet to enable mobile transfers between European systems and BLIK users.
At Santander Bank Polska, we have always believed in the idea of simple and fast payments around the world. That’s why we were the first on the Polish market to enable our clients to receive instant SEPA transfers in euros, and we are continuing to work on allowing outgoing transfers to be made in the same way. In addition, we are constantly improving our foreign currency offering in many other areas, such as currency accounts and exchange services. For these reasons, joining the pilot program for phone number-based transfers within the European payment systems is a natural step for us. This way, we will expand possibilities for our clients and provide them with the best cross-border payment experience
- says Przemysław Dukiel, Tribe Leader Everyday Banking at Santander Bank Polska.
At the Polish stand during the Web Summit in Lisbon, where the first cross-border P2P transaction involving BLIK was demonstrated, it was announced that within the next few weeks, the pilot group will be expanded to include customers of PKO Bank Polski. Work is currently underway to implement the functionality for receiving and sending EUR P2P transfers within the IKO mobile app.
BLIK phone transfers in Polish zloty are already an integral part of everyday banking for PKO Bank Polski customers, who now send over 50 million of them every quarter. Our pilot of BLIK phone transfers in euros, which we plan to launch at the beginning of December, is just the beginning of the journey. At its end, we will offer both receiving and sending phone transfers in euros, because we are convinced that this is a service our customers have been waiting for. We want to be there for them with our products and services exactly where they need them. We believe that the popularity of BLIK among Poles will translate into the popularity of this new service, as our compatriots travel, study, and work all across Europe. And they will certainly benefit from BLIK euro transfers in many everyday situations
- emphasizes Edyta Tararuj, Director of the Product Development Office at PKO Bank Polski.
At the same time, implementation efforts in Slovakia are progressing and will soon enable BLIK users within the euro area to carry out international BLIK phone-to-phone transfers as part of the interoperable cooperation between European mobile payment systems.
BLIK is a common standard for mobile payments. The option to use BLIK in mobile banking applications is now available to virtually every customer of domestic payment institutions offering a mobile app. The company Polski Standard Płatności (PSP) is responsible for developing the system. PSP continuously enhances BLIK’s functionality to make the system as user-friendly and versatile as possible. The shareholders of PSP are Alior Bank, Millennium Bank, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski, and Mastercard.
Media contact:
Klaudia Rombalska
BLIK Press Office
