Premiere in Romania: Banca Transilvania brings banking to social media messaging applications

Banca Transilvania brings for the first time on the Romanian market Social Banking Solution™, a facility developed by PayKey (Israel), designated Best FinTech 2018 at the Efma-Capgemini Best FinTech Award. The two companies offer BT customers a social banking solution to send and receive money, respectively to check the money in the account using the BT Pay button in the phone keypad. Customers who have android smartphone will have the BT Pay keyboard, and those with iPhone, the BT Pay extension.

Details:

• Thanks to Social Banking Solution™, bank customers who have an Android phone can perform the following operations while using any of the social media messaging applications:

- sending money (lei; euro) to the people in the phone book (between BT clients);

- request for money (lei; euro) from the contacts in the phone (between BT clients);

- checking the balances for the cards added to BT Pay.

• The BT Pay button will appear on the phone screen after the BT Pay keyboard is installed – either from the phone settings, keyboards section, or directly from the application with the same name BT.  
• For BT customers who have a phone with an iOS operating system, the balance check and money transfer option will be available from iMessage, activating the BT Pay extension available in the app.  
• Transferring money from debit cards and checking your balance is commission-free.
• If the transfer takes place between people who have a BT Mastercard Direct card in foreign currency, the transfer can also be in euros.

"Messaging applications are the place where, more and more, people communicate, inform themselves and shop. Therefore, we see that the banking integrated in social media is a natural step because we want to offer services that simplify the lives of our customers. The PayKey solution thus helps us to offer a digital banking experience for the first time in Romania. We expect the solution to contribute to increasing the number of money transfers, given that it is a service available around the clock", said Gabriela Nistor, Deputy General Manager Retail Banking, Banca Transilvania.

"We are happy to work with the Transilvania Bank team on this project, an innovative bank in terms of mobile banking. We are sure that it will be a fruitful collaboration from all points of view. Our experience with other banks shows us that Social Banking Solution™ is a very good way to interact with customers, offering them banking services with non-stop access. It is also an opportunity to position the bank as a first-mover in terms of innovation," says Guy Talmi, Chief Marketing Officer, PayKey.

BT offers contactless payment alternatives, through the BT Pay collection, which includes the following accessories: watch, bracelet, sticker, the application with the same name, the Garmin smartwatch, Fitbit Pay and, from now on, the BT Pay keyboard / extension.

Bringing this service to Romania means for The Transylvania Bank's clients an easy and friendly way to send and request money by phone.

Banca Transilvania & PayKey

About Banca Transilvania: BT is the largest bank in Romania, by assets. The bank has over 3 million customers, 500 offices and about 8,000 employees. Banca Transilvania is the leader of cards on the Romanian market. It is also the only brand in Romania present in the Brand Finance 500 ranking, made by Brand Finance in 2019 and 2018. BT's success story began in Romania, in Cluj-Napoca, 25 years ago, with a team of 13 people and a branch.  

About PayKey: Established in Tel Aviv in 2014, PayKey offers a solution that allows banks to increase brand engagement by transforming the mobile phone keyboard into a new service distribution channel. Thanks to PayKey, bank customers have access to a range of financial services, such as: transfer and request for money, checking the bank balance, withdrawing money from the ATM without using the card, etc. from any social media messaging application. By transforming the smartphone's keyboard into a new channel for distributing services and information, PayKey helps banks achieve their goals by increasing brand loyalty, increasing sales channels and perfecting the customer experience. The PayKey solution is easy to integrate and is a safe application because, in order to perform operations, it keeps the method of identifying banks. PayKey has won numerous awards such as: Efma-Capgemini Best Fintech 2018, Citi Mobile Challenge EMEA, Santander 'Pitch Slam', Visa Contactless & Mobile Awards Payment Innovation and is part of Europe's Hottest 50 FinTech Firms. The company has so far received USD 16 million from companies such as CommerzVentures, Santander InnoVentures, SBI Group, Siam Commercial Bank, Mastercard, MizMaa, Digital Ventures, e.ventures, Wharton Asset Management and Magma VC.

Press contact details:  

Laura Petrehus, Director Adj. Communication & PR, BT, laura.petrehus@btrl.ro

Guy Talmi, CMO, PayKey, gtalmi@paykey.com