By April next year, all BGN bank transfers must arrive in 10 seconds. So it’s the deadline for all banks to be included in the Blink leveraged instant payments platform. Currently there are UBB, FIB, Postbank, TBI Bank, DSK Bank and Transkart Financial Services. For this reason, some employees receive their pay really instantly after the transfer from their employer, while others wait several hours. Under the old system, payments were only made three times a day, and if the transfer was made in the late afternoon, the money could not reach the recipient until the next day.
Most Bulgarians already rely on money transfers in 10 seconds. Almost 2/3 of the bank accounts in our country are now available for these instant payments, it is clear from the bulletin of the Association of Commercial Banks in Bulgaria. Transactions are completed within 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. “This is an important project, which started last year and is already in a real phase,” said Nina Stoyanova, deputy governor of the BNB, head of the “Bankovo” department.
The deadline for migration to the new BGN instant payment platform is April 2023. The Blink program is part of the National Card and Payment Scheme, part of BORIKA AD. It is important to note that Blink Instant Payments are not applicable to recurring and bulk wire transfers, direct debits and budget wire transfers.
“The successful implementation of the project and the broad participation of the banking community are a prerequisite for a future smooth migration of customer accounts and euro payments” when we enter the eurozone, commented Nina Stoyanova.
