Polish Payment Standard (PSP), the operator of the BLIK mobile payment system, received approval from the National Bank of Slovakia (Národná banka Slovenska, NBS) for the acquisition of the Slovak company VIAMO and finalized the transaction, the operator said.
“The approval of the National Bank of Slovakia, which enabled the finalization of the transaction, is an important step in the international development of BLIK. Thanks to it, we can start introducing BLIK on the Slovak market. We have clearly defined ambitions, but also an excellent product that we can scale. We believe that with the support of the Slovak team we can grow faster, and not only in this region,” said PSP President Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, quoted in the release.
The purchase agreement for VIAMO was signed in August last year. The approval of the Slovak central bank was a condition for finalizing the transaction.
VIAMO has been operating on the Slovak market for ten years. It has the status of a payment institution and provides services in the field of P2P payments and payments to enterprises. The company is also a provider of a payment gateway – VIAMO PayGate. The company works closely with two banks – VÚB and Tatra banka. However, its services can be used by customers of all banks in Slovakia using the VIAMO Plus mobile application.
“We are convinced that the cooperation between BLIK and VIAMO and the development of the offer based on the strengths of both companies will bring measurable benefits to customers of banks using modern forms of settlements. I believe that in the near future we will be able to say more about the first effects of the actions taken,” said Michał Szymański, Strategy Director for New Markets at PSP.
Apart from Poland and Slovakia, BLIK plans to develop its operations also in Romania in the near future. At the end of last year, BLIK Romania S.A. was established, responsible for popularizing the BLIK mobile payment system in this country.
BLIK is a common standard for mobile payments. Polski Standard Płatności (PSP) is responsible for the development of the system. Its shareholders are: Alior Bank, Bank Millennium, Santander Bank Polska, ING Bank Śląski, mBank, PKO Bank Polski and Mastercard.