A snapshot of Instant payments 3 years after the first transaction in Bulgaria
Instant payments, within just 10 seconds, were first mentioned in our country at the beginning of 2020, when this type of payment was already a fact in most European countries. The project has been launched at a time when the entire banking community in Bulgaria was ready for this transformation of payment services towards higher speed and efficiency. In April 2021, BORICA and the Bulgarian National Bank have achieved a full technical readiness, and just a few months later - on November 22, 2021, the first successful instant transaction was completed by a Bulgarian bank client.
Three years later, the Bulgarian instant payment landscape has seen substantial expansion. Currently, 32 payment service providers in our country (24 banks and 8 non-bank institutions) accept instant payments in BGN, and 23 (16 banks and 7 non-bank institutions) send instant transfers.
Both corporate and individual clients, quickly got used to the new payment reality, as the numbers speak for themselves:
NUMBER OF INSTANT PAYMETS BLINK 2022 - 2024
SHARE OF INSTANT PAYMENTS BLINK 2022 – 2024
The share of instant payments is constantly growing, as it results in 20.36% of the total number of BGN transfers through BISERA6 Payment System, compared to 2022, when it was only 3.51%. These data clearly show that instant payments are becoming a more attractive and preferred payment method in Bulgaria with each new month.
VOLUME AND VALUE OF INSTANT PAYMENTS BLINK 2024
In 2024, instant payments in BGN made through BISERA6 Payment System amounted to 22.635 million transactions, which is a record increase of 102.14% compared to the previous 2023. The total value of these transactions reached 36.920 billion BGN, which represents a growth of 96.35% compared to 2023.
After the successful launch of blink Instant transfers, at the end of 2022 the project has been upgraded with a new Mobile Lookup infrastructure, based on the European standard. This made it possible to send and receive the first instant payments via mobile number at the beginning of 2023. By the end of 2024, the service had been offered by 8 payment service providers in Bulgaria (7 banks and 1 non-banking institution). Customers quickly got used to the convenience of blink P2P and are increasingly using blink in their daily activities.
REGISTERED BLINK P2P IBANs 2024
The Statistics show a 60% growth, reaching 925 thousand registered accounts for P2P transfers at the end of 2024.
TOTAL NUMBER OF BLINK P2P TRANSFERS 2024
The number of transfers over the past year is approximately 1.4 million.
TOTAL AMOUNT OF BLINK P2P TRANSFER
In December 2024, it reached nearly 45 million BGN.
Since early December 2024, instant euro payments have been available as a new payment service of BISERA System, operated by BORICA AD. Full SEPA reachability for instant payments in euro is ensured by the inclusion of BISERA in the TIPS (Target Instant Payment Settlement) service of the Eurosystem. Instant payments in euro are based on the SEPA scheme for instant credit transfers of the European Payments Council and are executed in real time in less than 10 seconds in a 24/7 mode, 365 days a year. Currently, 6 payment service providers have full reachability, with the number of successfully certified institutions on the rise.
