Mastercard, BLIK Partner To Bring Contactless Payments To Poland

Mastercard, the global payments company, and Polish Payment Standard, the operator of BLIK, a Polish mobile payment system and scheme, announced Monday (Dec. 17) that the two have inked a partnership.

In a press release, the companies said that Mastercard and BLIK will provide consumers and merchants with contactless payments for BLIK users at all Mastercard-branded payment terminals across the globe. BLIK is taking advantage of Mastercard virtual debit cards tokenized by the Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to make it happen. That will enable BLIK customers to access what Polish Payment Standard said is the most convenient point of sale payment experience throughout the world.

The companies also announced they will create a cross-border eCommerce acceptance scheme using Secure Remote Commerce standards when it is available in the market, enabling BLIK consumers to use BLIK for global eCommerce payments. The two said they will also collaborate on BLIK expansion into new markets by bringing on consumers who are living in countries outside of Poland.

“Establishing a strategic alliance with Mastercard is a crucial moment for the development of BLIK, the Polish mobile payment system. BLIK users will be able to pay contactless soon, not only in Poland, but also globally,” said Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, president of the Polish Payment Standard, the BLIK operator. “This is also the beginning of the way to offer BLIK payments to users of mobile bank apps internationally.”

Bartosz Ciołkowski, general manager for Poland at Mastercard Europe, said in the same press release that the primary focus of the collaboration is on the benefit it will bring to consumers in Poland as they shop locally and throughout the world. “Mastercard is very excited about this partnership, and we look forward to complement[ing] BLIK’s local mobile platform with our global reach, payments and security technology,” the Mastercard executive said in the press release.