Reff & Associates and Deloitte Romania assisted BLIK Romania in obtaining the functioning authorization of the payment system BLIK Romania, a premiere for the local market

Reff & Associates and Deloitte Romania assisted BLIK Romania, the local company established by the Polish provider of innovative payment solutions Polski Standard Płatności Sp. z o.o., which operates in Poland under the brand BLIK, in the process of authorizing the BLIK Romania payment system by the National Bank of Romania (NBR). The functioning authorization of the BLIK Romania payment system, administered by BLIK Romania S.A., was issued by NBR on October 1, 2024.

BLIK is the first payment system in the EU to expand its activity in Romania and introduces on the local market a completely new concept for making online payments and not only, by generating a unique six-digit code in the mobile banking application of each user, which offers users a safe and fast alternative to using physical or virtual cards.

"I would like to extend our thanks to Reff & Associates and Deloitte Romania for their invaluable assistance throughout the authorization process as part of their support for BLIK Romania. The granting of the operating authorization by NBR marks a key milestone in BLIK's development in Romania, one of the most important markets in the CEE region, particularly in terms of e-commerce growth. The rapid development of the digital sector and the increasing popularity of cashless transactions provide the ideal conditions for implementing an innovative payment solution like BLIK," said Ryszard Drużynski, CEO, BLIK Romania.

Throughout the entire authorization process, BLIK Romania was assisted by the teams of lawyers from Reff & Associates and Deloitte Legal Poland on all legal aspects related to this project. Also, the Risk Advsiory practices of Deloitte Romania and Deloitte Poland covered all aspects related to risk management and cybersecurity.

"Obtaining the functioning authorization by BLIK Romania payment system is a milestone for the local payment market and a great success for our team, given the high degree of complexity of the project, as well as innovation. The regulatory requirements applicable to financial market infrastructures, such as BLIK Romania payment system, are among the most complex in the financial sector, so the preparation of such an extensive authorization file, consisting of hundreds of documents, required a very close collaboration between our teams of lawyers and consultants from Romania and Poland. We are grateful to our client for the opportunity and the trust placed in us and I congratulate my colleagues for the professionalism and involvement they have shown in this challenging project", said Andrei Burz-Pînzaru, Partner at Reff & Associates | Deloitte Legal, and Head of the Financial-Banking Department.

Legal team at Reff & Associates | Deloitte Legal was made up of Andrei Burz-Pînzaru, Partner, Roxana-Maria Bratosin, Managing Associate, from the Financial-Banking Department, who coordinated the entire project team, Dănuț Arion, Senior Associate, from the Financial-Banking Department, as well as Fraga Varadi, Managing Associate, and Alexandru Tinică, Associate, from the Corporate M&A Department, who assisted on corporate matters. The Deloitte Romania team consisted of Andrada Tanase, Director, Cristina Tache, Manager, and Ana Ursu, Senior Consultant, from the Risk Regulatory Department, and by Raluca Anton, Senior Manager, from the Cybersecurity Department. Also, Mateusz Ordyk, Agata Mizera, Michal Kuchta, Adam Rasinki, Michal Mostowik și Aleksandra Krasnicka, from Deloitte Poland, contributed to the success of the project.

BLIK is a common payment standard launched in 2015 in Poland, which is currently accessible to almost every customer of financial institutions offering mobile applications on the Polish market. It allows online payments, traditional payment terminals (POS) via BLIK code, contactless payments, deposits and withdrawals of money from ATMs, as well as instant money transfers to a phone number (P2P). The development of the system is managed by Polski Standard Płatności (PSP), which continuously improves BLIK's functionalities in order to provide users with as many options as possible. Currently, almost 17 million users actively use BLIK.

Reff & Associates | Deloitte Legal is recognized as a leading law firm in Romania for the quality of services and ability to deliver solutions on complex legal matters. The areas of practice include banking and finance, competition, employment, energy and environment, insolvency, legal management consulting, litigation, corporate, mergers and acquisitions, public sector and real estate, as well as optimization of legal processes and the adoption of new technologies. The firm represents in Romania Deloitte Legal, a global network with more than 2,500 lawyers in 80 countries.