BBVA launches its mobile payment app in Turkey as the Spanish bank reveals more than one million downloads of the Wallet application in the two years since its launch. Already available in four countries, the app is being launched last week in Turkey by Garanti Bank – in which BBVA has a nearly 40% stake – under the BonusFlas brand.
Customers can use the app to make contactless payments on the high street, apply for in-app loans to fund purchases and turn cards on and off for certain transactions or if a card is lost or stolen.
The Turkish launch will also come with additional features, including the ability to enrol in loyalty programmes in-app, increase credit limits and receive retailer offers based on geolocation. The app also allows to send customers a receipt as soon as they’ve completed a transaction, allowing them to keep track of their spending. BBVA Wallet also has benefits for retailers, allowing them to offer customers discounts at the point of sale.
BBVA says in a press release that the total number of Wallet downloads at the end of Q3 2015 stood at 1.057 million. Spain had 850,000 downloads, while Mexico (Bancomer) had 164 000, just three months after a July launch. Chile (BBVA Chile) and the US (BBVA Compass) are at a very early stage at 36,000 and 7,000 respectively.
Nonetheless, BBVA now forecasts that the Wallet app will be downloaded at least five million times by the end of 2016. In Q3 2015, Wallet was downloaded 358,000 times, compared to 87,000 in 2014 – a 311% increase.
Mehmet Sezgin, Global Head of Payments for BBVA, said:”With over 80% of the world’s payments still in cash, we believe there’s a big opportunity to move from 1 to 5 million downloads by the end of 2016.”
Data shows that Wallet customers use their card more and spend more. In Spain, Wallet users make 11 card purchases each month, 22% more than plastic users. They also spend 18% more on average each month (435€ vs 369€).
Garanti’s BonusFlas has new features which will eventually launch in other Wallet territories, including the ability to enrol in loyalty programmes in-app, increase your credit limit and receive retailer offers based on geolocation.
Sezgin added: ‘1 million BBVA Wallet downloads is the beginning of a journey. I firmly believe that people using plastic will be in a minority by 2020. As the only Bank operating digital wallets in 5 countries around the world, we are at the forefront of the major transformation from plastic to mobile’.
Banking 4.0 – „how was the experience for you”
„So many people are coming here to Bucharest, people that I see and interact on linkedin and now I get the change to meet them in person. It was like being to the Football World Cup but this was the World Cup on linkedin in payments and open banking.”
Many more interesting quotes in the video below:
