PKO BP has introduced a new procedure for dealing with unusual payment card transactions. The bank’s customers can now confirm in the app that they are making the payment or withdrawing cash if the bank’s security system flags the transaction as suspicious.

See also: Provident has launched a credit card in Romania under its Polish KIP licence

If the system detects unusual activity, it may temporarily block the card until it verifies that the transaction is being carried out by the card’s rightful holder. Until now, in such situations, customers had to wait for the bank to contact them by telephone. Now, PKO will send app users a push notification and a text message, to which they can respond themselves by confirming that they are the ones using the card. Only if there is no response within a specified time will a customer service representative or a voice assistant call the customer, as has been the case up to now.

At the same time, customers can also react immediately if they do not recognise a transaction made using their card. In such a situation, they can irrevocably block the card, and the bank will immediately begin the process of issuing a new one via the app. PKO BP assures customers that it will quickly make the new card available in digital form, allowing them to add it straight away to Apple Wallet, Google Wallet or Samsung Wallet and make mobile payments without having to wait for a physical card to be delivered.

See also: Revolut is promising to open its own airport lounges

The service is available to retail customers holding debit and credit cards. As the bank emphasises, the new feature enables customers to react more quickly to unusual transactions and allows them to decide for themselves whether to continue using the card. It is an additional verification method that helps protect against unauthorised payments, whilst also making it easier to resume normal use of the card once a transaction is confirmed as legitimate.