Beyond Poland: BLIK Hits New Highs in Q1
Hey Payments Fanatic!
Polish payments giant BLIK shows no signs of slowing down.
Fresh data for Q1 2026 reveals that users completed 756 million transactions, a 14% jump year-over-year. This momentum is further underscored by a total transaction volume of PLN 117.3 billion (€27.6 billion).
E-commerce remains the engine of this growth, with the online channel accounting for 50.1% of all BLIK operations. However, the narrative is shifting from domestic dominance to international ambition.
Dariusz Mazurkiewicz, CEO of Polish Payment Standard (BLIK’s operator), noted that they are “consistently expanding the system’s availability beyond Poland.”
“The first successful transactions in Slovak e-commerce strengthen our strategy of building an interoperable solution in Europe. This opens the way for users to make convenient payments on foreign platforms across the eurozone,” said Mazurkiewicz.
As I covered last month, BLIK is officially entering the Eurozone, starting with its rollout in Slovakia.
Keep scrolling to see what else is shaking up the payments world. 👇 Catch you in tomorrow's edition!
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📊 Agentic commerce is expected to reach $𝟭.𝟱 𝗧𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗢𝗡 by 2030 🤯
NEWS
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🇵🇱 BLIK processed 756 million transactions worth nearly PLN 120 billion in Q1 2026, maintaining double-digit growth driven largely by e-commerce activity. Online payments accounted for half of all transactions, with newer services like recurring payments and Buy Now, Pay Later contributing to increased adoption among its 21.1 million active users.
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GOLDEN NUGGET
3𝐃𝐒 𝐀𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐞 - the real story, frictionless is declining - by Ravelin Technology 👇Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️
On the surface, authentication performance looks stable — even improving.
→ Global 3DS success rate: 79% → 82%
→ 3DS challenge success rate: 74% → 76%
→ Frictionless rate: 64% → 58%
Frictionless declined in 76% of countries. That’s not noise. That’s structural.
↳
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜
𝐀 𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 3𝐃𝐒 𝐬𝐮𝐜𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞. If more transactions are challenged — and customers successfully complete those challenges — “success” increases.
But conversion does not.
Frictionless is the real proxy for authentication quality.
And it is under pressure globally.
↳
𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭’𝐬 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬?
→ Issuers tightening fraud thresholds
→ Exemptions approved less frequently
→ Scheme monitoring intensifying
→ Expanding regulatory scrutiny
Merchants are requesting more exemptions. Issuers are granting fewer. The tension shows up directly in the frictionless data.
↳
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 3DS is no longer a compliance layer.
It is a dynamic optimization challenge — issuer by issuer, transaction by transaction.
The advantage is no longer connectivity. It is authentication intelligence:
→ Richer authorization data
→ Adaptive exemption logic
→ Network token optimization
→ Continuous issuer feedback learning
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫:
“Are you using 3DS?”
𝐈𝐭’𝐬:
“Are you optimizing it?”
As Nike said: Just do it. 🚀
Payments, they never stops...
Source: Ravelin Technology - Global Payments Report 2026
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