BPC and DSK Bank partner to enable contactless payments in Bulgaria

By Joy Dumasia

BPC’s smart city payment division  O-CITY  has partnered with DSK Bank in Bulgaria and its subsidiary DSK Mobile, both part of OTP Group and local operator CNS, delivering the new ticketing system overseen by the Sofia Urban Mobility Center.

Passengers can now pay using contactless Visa or Mastercard bank cards issued by any bank or FinTech company across the world or respective NFC mobile wallet, in 3,900 validators installed across the capital’s public ground transportation system, including buses, trams, trolleybuses.

O-CITY ensures passengers can seamlessly and securely tap-to-pay with their bank card in public transport or any other means of payment, wallet, QR code and more. Using a BPC eCommerce solution for DSK Bank, the SUMC web portal provides functionality to pre-purchase a travel subscription on close loop transport cards, completing the full scale of digital payments for public transport services.

This flexibility in payments is possible with O-CITY’s open-loop technologies, which helps operators expand the choice for payment and transition to contactless payments. The solution has already been implemented in over 130 cities worldwide and quickly adopted by travellers, leading to a rapid return on investment for operators and governments.

The digitisation of payments is part of the Bulgarian government’s commitment to making Sofia a “green capital” and a model of sustainable urban development. As a means to achieve this goal, Sofia Municipality and Sofia Urban Mobility Center implemented a new unified ticketing system in May 2021, which enables a variety of new channels, including open-loop EMV contactless cards.

Tokhir Abdukadirov, SVP, Head of Smart City Solutions at O-CITY, said: “In cities around the world, transport is undergoing accelerated digital transformation, spurred on by pandemic concerns. Contactless is becoming a convenient and efficient reality everywhere, and there is simply no way back. We are proud to see Sofia Municipality and Sofia Urban Mobility Center working together with DSK, CNS, Visa, MasterCard and O-CITY to power this exciting initiative which will make travelling around the capital city easier for everyone.”