Article of Miroslav Vichev for Association of Banks in Bulgaria bulletin
BORICA: the Strategic Partner for Secure, Instant and Trusted Digital Financial Infrastructure
Bulgarian banking sector has gone through years in which digitalization was measured primarily by the number of electronic channels and the convenience of mobile applications. With the entry into the Eurozone, the growth of instant transfers and the increasingly high European security requirements, the emphasis has shifted from channels to digital infrastructure, which must be reliable and interoperable, enable innovation and at the same time maintain the trust of consumers and businesses. That is why at BORICA we see ourselves not as a provider of individual services, but as a platform on which the next generation of banking services will stand. Our priorities are interrelated and can hardly be considered separately: the growth of instant transfers cannot continue without a stronger joint sector model for fraud prevention; A2A (account-to-account) payments through blink need European interoperability and common standards; modern card and merchant services imply a shorter time to market. Added to this are digital identity, which requires trusted infrastructure, and data, which must become an asset for the benefit of the financial sector and the economy.
From the Growth of Instant Transfers to a Central Fraud Prevention Model
Instant payments have changed the very logic of risk. In traditional payment processes, processing time left room for additional checks, with instant payments there is practically no such window. Security must be built in before and during the payment itself, with mechanisms for real-time risk assessment. That is why we place such a strong emphasis on building a central fraud prevention model in Bulgaria, a natural extension of our role as a national payment infrastructure operator. Individual bank systems remain key, but practice shows that fraud increasingly crosses different channels, institutions and payment instruments. No bank can see the whole picture alone. The sector needs a common prevention layer: exchange of signals, behavioral analysis and coordinated response. The first important step in this direction is Verification of Payee (VoP). Checking the correspondence between the IBAN and the recipient’s name before finalizing the transfer limits misdirected payments, substitution of bank details and social engineering. BORICA is a certified solution provider under the scheme, and we are currently working on more than 20 projects to implement the service. Our broader goal remains to build a national central fraud prevention model, compliant with the Instant Payments Regulation, PSD3, PSR, Delegated Regulation 2018/389 and the expected European requirements
for fraud data exchange.
blink – A2A Ecosystem, Not Just a Payment Service
The development of blink is a good illustration of how instant payments are turning from infrastructure into everyday value for the customer. The blink P2P service has already exceeded 1.4 million registered users. On this basis, we are adding new services - parking, donations, e-commerce, payments to businesses and the public sector, and in the future, solutions for the physical retail environment. The direction in which we are working is for blink to develop as a full-fledged A2A ecosystem, creating value along the entire chain. Banks receive a common infrastructure on which to build new customer offerings, merchants an alternative and effective channel for accepting payments, consumers faster and more convenient payments, and the state and municipalities the potential for more efficient collection of payments to the public sector. However, such an ecosystem only makes sense if it grows together with security. The more uses we add to instant and A2A payments, the more weight the centralized fraud prevention model, real-time monitoring, and common consumer protection standards gain.
European Interoperability and Payment Sovereignty
The time when national payment solutions could develop in isolation is over. The next stage for Bulgaria is connecting to the European payment architecture, and we are working in this direction both through participation in interoperability initiatives and through the development of blink as part of a broader European model. Joining EuroPA is an important step precisely because the model does not replace successful national solutions but connects them. In our opinion, this is the pragmatic path to European payment sovereignty: strong local systems, common standards and the possibility of cross-border use. Bulgaria enters this process with a real advantage – an established payment infrastructure, a national card switch, capacity for instant payments and over 200 000 POS terminals compatible with future European technological standards. European interoperability is a practical opportunity for banks to create new services, expanding the scope of payments by stepping on a working national infrastructure.
Modern Card Infrastructure for Faster Product Innovation
As dynamic as A2A payments are, card infrastructure remains critical for the banking sector. We are working to modernize bank card processes with a clear goal - for banks to create and change products faster, with less operational complexity and with a significantly shorter time to market. This includes digital cards, tokenization, 3D Secure, flexible product configuration, voucher solutions, fleet cards and several other specialized card offerings. We apply the same logic to card payment acceptance. We are developing services to support banks in servicing merchants and expanding their sales network - VPOS, SoftPOS, POS outsourcing, e-commerce solutions, terminal infrastructure management and bank card acceptance services. These are the practical areas in which infrastructure capacity becomes a real business advantage. Card and A2A payments should not be opposed. The market will demand both approaches, and in combination. Our role is to provide the technological foundation that allows banks and payment service providers to leverage the strengths of both models.
Digital Identity
The next generation of financial services will require not only fast payments, but also reliable identification. The new European framework eIDAS 2.0 and the European Digital Identity Wallet will change the way citizens and businesses identify themselves, sign documents and access digital services. For us, digital identity is a natural extension of the payment infrastructure. Payments today still rely on trusted participants, secure processes, regulatory oversight and high authentication standards. It is precisely this foundation that can support the construction of digital identity in the service of banks, consumers, businesses and the public sector. The synergy between a payment system and digital identity is of strategic importance: less fragmentation, shorter identification processes, higher security and new opportunities for remote servicing and trusted digital services.
The common denominator of all these directions is the construction of an intelligent, integrated and innovative financial infrastructure. With clear governance, high standards of protection and full compliance with regulatory requirements, data from the payment ecosystem becomes a business asset. BORICA has the capacity to develop analytical products with added value for banks, businesses and the public sector - on aggregated, secure and lawfully processed data.
This would provide a better understanding of consumer behavior, payment dynamics, seasonality, regional economic activity and the development of digital services. The infrastructure ceases to be just an environment for processing transactions and becomes a source of knowledge that supports better management and business decisions. BORICA will continue to develop this connected platform for secure, instant and trusted financial services. Our strategy brings together sector security, an A2A ecosystem, modern card services, European interoperability, digital identity and analytical value – interconnected elements of a common infrastructure logic that matters not only for banks, but also for Bulgaria’s place in the future European financial architecture.
