PKO Bank Polski claims it implemented „the biggest consumer facing application of the blockchain technology in the banking sector all over the world”

PKO Bank Polski together with KIR (a key entity of the Polish payment system) implemented blockchain technology, thanks to which the bank’s customers will receive electronically the amended product terms and conditions. This is a historical dispatch that will reach over 5 million bank customers and in terms of coverage, will be Europe’s largest application of blockchain technology in banking.

After several months of intensive works on the application of blockchain technology to confirm authenticity and immutability of documents sent electronically by the bank, PKO Bank Polski has fully implemented the solution and is beginning the historical mailing. In the coming few days, more than 5 million bank customers will receive digital terms and conditions of the new product.

„This is the biggest consumer facing application of the blockchain technology in the banking sector all over the world.”, according to the press release.

The solution was developed together with KIR in cooperation with a number of technology partners. PKO BP was working closely with Coinfirm, the Polish-British company specializing in RegTech. The cooperation started as part of the „Let’s Fintech with PKO Bank Polski!” program.

– Blockchain offers huge potential to increase competitiveness of the Polish banking sector. This is a relatively new technology for which further applications are constantly found worldwide. PKO Bank Polski is successfully implementing the digitization focused strategy, and full implementation of the blockchain-based solution is yet another step along the path we mapped out, strengthening our position as a technological leader in the Polish banking sector. We are working on further innovative solutions involving external partners to develop modern banking in Poland – says Adam Marciniak, Vice President of the Management Board of PKO Bank Polski.

– As a technology partner for banks, we also play the role of a sectoral research and development center. Therefore, based on the approach agreed within the sector, together with PKO Bank Polski, we have worked out a solution that uses the potential of blockchain technology in practice – says Piotr Alicki, President of the Management Board of KIR. – The new service, based on blockchain technology and qualified electronic seal, allows to fully adapt to the needs of banks, guarantees easy integration, high performance, scalability and security – adds Piotr Alicki.

More than half of clients will receive digital correspondence

Changes in the product regulations that will be communicated to clients, are based on European and national PSD2 regulations, which define the rules of access of external entities to functions and banking data. Electronic communication will reach bank customers, who consented for this form of information transfer. Currently, this regards over 5 million people, accounting for more than half of customers using the bank’s products. The growing number of people choose this way of communication, because in the era of digitization handling, storage and archiving of electronic correspondence is easier than analogue. Traditional correspondence will be sent to other clients.

Simple authentication of the document

In the electronic correspondence from the bank, customers will find, among others, the 64-character unique hash identifier of the document and link to the bank’s website, where without logging in, simply after pasting the hash identifier or uploading the previously downloaded document, they will receive information if the document is authentic and when was the last time it was modified. Thanks to this solution, clients will keep access to documents even after cooperation with the bank is ended with certainty that these documents were not modified. Documents are stored simultaneously on the servers of PKO Bank Polski and KIR, accessible through the websites of both institutions.

Let’s Fintech with PKO Bank Polski!

Works on implementation of the solution have been carried out in the bank for many months. Together with Coinfirm, we worked on producing a safe blockchain platform and its scaling so that it could be used in the largest corporations. These are the features of today’s Trudatum platform used to confirm authenticity of electronic documents.

– Implementation of Trudatum in such a large institution as PKO Bank Polski is a breakthrough on a global scale. This shows that Polish financial industry is still open to innovation and sets international trends. We can be proud of how quickly and efficiently new technologies are implemented – says Paweł Kuskowski, CEO and co-founder of Coinfirm. – Working with the PKO Bank Polski team is a great pleasure – we move quickly and efficiently from pilot implementations to the ever-wider use of technology. It is a great satisfaction that we are making life easier for millions of bank customers and contribute to reducing the bank’s costs – emphasizes Paweł Kuskowski.

Cooperation with Coinfirm is the success of „Let’s Fintech with PKO Bank Polski!” – the platform for the development of innovation and modern technologies. Its objective is to seek and develop prospective technological solutions, engaging the start-ups and fintech ecosystem. The bank has full infrastructure which allows implementation – experts experienced in cooperation with start-ups, testing environment, Venture Capital fund, which can provide capital support and the start-ups acceleration program. Everyone, who would like to implement fintech solution with us can apply through the fintech.pkobp.pl/fintech-en website. The history of Coinfirm is a great example of the efficiency of this platform – when the company started cooperation with the bank a year ago, it was a small start-up with over a dozen people. Today, the company employs more than 100 people and works with clients from dozens of countries around the world.

The Blockchain Competence Center is working on subsequent applications of technology

Blockchain is a decentralized and dispersed database in the Internet. Thanks to features such as no central data storage and use of peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture, it is impartial and fully resistant to attacks. The technology quickly finds new applications. It can be used wherever there is a need to confirm a specific event by a third party. In case of the bank documents, it can serve, for example, to confirm when the last version of the document was produced and its author. Blockchain has a direct impact on banks operations and it can increase the competitiveness of the entire Polish banking sector and of the national economy. With the perspective of the wide potential of its applications, the Blockchain Competence Center was established in PKO Bank Polski at the beginning of 2018. The team of experts focuses on blockchain technology research in the technological, business and regulatory areas, coordinating implementation works and searching for new areas of its practical application in banking.

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PKO Bank Polski is the undisputable leader of the Polish banking sector. In first half of 2018, its consolidated net profit amounted to PLN 1.69 mld (the largest in the Polish banking sector) and the value of assets reached over PLN 298.7 billion. The Bank is the basic provider of financial services for all customer segments, achieving the highest shares in the deposit market (17.9 percent), loans (17.7 percent), leasing market (12.0 percent) and in the market of investment funds not dedicated (17.2 percent). With over 8.3 million payment cards, the bank is the largest debit and credit card issuer in Poland with a market share of over 21%. Thanks to the development of digital tools, including the IKO application, which has in first half of 2018 – 2.6 million active applications, PKO Bank Polski has become the most mobile bank in Poland.