BLIK's operator is the company Polski Standard Płatności, a joint-stock company since November 2024. The system itself works under a permit from the President of NBP, and settlement inside the BLIK system itself runs through SORBNET3, which belongs to it.
What it is and since when
BLIK was launched on 9 February 2015 by six Polish banks. Today the system's site lists 21 banks and banking associations, and behind three of the entries stand hundreds of cooperative banks and credit unions, so “21 banks” is an inaccuracy. Since 9 September 2026 NBP has counted BLIK among the systemically important payment systems.
A transfer to a phone number
The recipient must register the number in their banking app in advance: the money will arrive at the account that is linked to the number. Registration is not automatic — at the end of the first half of 2026 the number database held 20.7 million users against 21.6 million active BLIK users.
What happens if the number is not registered BLIK itself describes in different ways: the rulebook speaks of an error at which the transfer does not go through, and the help pages of the bank being able to offer another route, with the money coming back if the recipient does not manage in time. This is a discrepancy inside one source, and it cannot be merged into a single sentence.
The speed the system describes in its own words — “kilkanaście sekund”, that is, about fifteen seconds, at any hour and on any day of the week. This is not “instantly”: Express Elixir has a different wording, “a few seconds”, and the difference is worth keeping.
The limit is set by the bank, not by BLIK
BLIK has no system ceiling at all: it says so in plain text, and the scheme rulebook has no maximum amount either. So any phrase along the lines of “the BLIK transfer limit is such-and-such zloty” is wrong as a general rule.
At the largest Polish banks, as of 19 September 2026, the spread per transfer is tenfold: 500 zloty by default at ING, 1,000 at Pekao, 2,000 at mBank and 5,000 at Millennium. PKO does not publish a per-transfer limit separately: its 1,500 zloty is the default daily limit, with a maximum of 3,000. Raising the limit is not allowed everywhere: mBank lets you only lower it, and Pekao writes that its two limits cannot be changed.
How BLIK differs from Express Elixir
Express Elixir is a different instant transfer system, its operator is KIR, and it has been working since June 2012. Here it is all the other way round: a system ceiling does exist, 100,000 zloty per transfer, but banks give retail customers less — from 3,000 zloty at PKO to the full 100,000 at ING. The system limit and what is available to a person are different numbers.
There is a link between the systems, but not the one usually written about. An interbank BLIK transfer to a phone number is most often settled in Express Elixir, yet the sender's bank may put it through as an internal settlement if both accounts are with it, or through the BLIK system itself. Calling BLIK an add-on over Express Elixir is wrong.
The third system, the ordinary Elixir, works differently: it settles in three sessions and only on working days. An instruction submitted on Friday after 16:00 is credited to the recipient on Monday after 11:00 — the same thing through BLIK or Express Elixir goes through in seconds. The caveat is obligatory: a bank has its own cut-off, and it is earlier than the settlement system's, so 16:00 is the system's time, not the bank's.