Polish banking gives credit card companies a run for their money

In opposition with credit card powers Visa and MasterCard, 6 Polish banks have united to work on a card system that is a concern for the two household credit card brands.

Bank Zachodni WBK, PKO Bank Polsk, ING Bank Śląski, BRE Bank, Alior Bank and Bank Millennium aim to develop a regulated card initiative, together, that will allow them to work without having to go through the credit card companies. This is not the first scheme of its kind (there is also the Weve JV in Spain and the UK) but the initiative is unique because of their (the banks’) positions within the financial world.

The initiative is based on an existing application (IKO app), created by PKO Bank, which enables consumers to pay in retail stores and to take money out of ATM machines by using a digitized code that they receive from the app.

"This will be a more competitive system compared to the credit card system. The credit card system will probably be put under a question mark in the future." Says Bank Millennium CEO Boguslaw Kott. And even though Visa was reported as having been “not happy”, the Polish team are powering on and could stand to make a real dent in the payment world as we know it.