Get In The Express Lane

Interbank Card Center of Turkey, BKM, has recently launched a digital wallet platform, EXPRESS, that makes online purchases both more convenient and less time-consuming. Cardholders are able to shop online using only a password from their mobile phones without the need to input any card information. What follows is a Q&A between BKM and PYMNTS.com.


• PYMNTS.com: Tell us about BKM. Prior to the launch of express, what was the company doing? When was it founded? How many employees does it have?

Established in 1990, BKM (Interbank Card Center of Turkey) was formed as a partnership of 13 public and private Turkish banks to develop the rules and standards of credit and debit cards in Turkey.

BKM provides interbank authorization, clearing and settlement services, develops procedures and domestic rules and coordinates relations with foreign entities for the Turkish Payment Sector.

Currently, with 74 employees and 27 member financial institutions in Turkey, BKM is the third largest service provider in Europe.

• Tell us about the user experience for your new product. How does a consumer go about signing up for, accessing, and using the express digital wallet platform? What benefits do they receive?

The cardholder signs up to express with a username (email address) and password at www.bkmexpress.com.tr. The cardholder then registers each card to Express using parts of the card number and their national Turkish ID Number. Express then passes this information to the card issuing bank.

The card issuing bank matches the information provided with their records and sends, via SMS, a one time password to the bank verified phone number of the cardholder. Once the cardholder enters this one time password on the Express screen the card is instantly verified and ready for use in online shopping. This process is repeated with each card to be registered in Express. The process is very fast and also secure since the full card number is only kept at the issuing bank and only the bank verified phone number is used.

Having saved the cards the cardholder becomes ready for online shopping. During the checkout step of online shopping, if the cardholder prefers to pay by express ‘digital wallet’ they sign in with their user name and password. Here they see all the cards and the purchase price including installment options for each card and make their card choice. Here again the issuing bank sends a one time password to the cardholders telephone. The transaction is completed along with the payment authorization once the one time password is correctly entered.

Express lets consumers see all their cards together; only parts of the card number are transmitted; Express doesn’t need mobile phone number data; purchases are faster and easier; there’s no extra charge; and consumers still earn all their regular spend-related rewards.

• How does BKM generate revenues, do merchants pay some form of interchange?

There is no fee or commission for merchants and cardholders. BKM generates revenues by fees that are charged to its member banks.

• What factors led you to believe that this was a necessary solution for consumer pain points? Why does Turkey need an express digital wallet?

Even If the cardholder doesn’t have his/her card with him/her, he/she can make a purchase from an e-commerce web site by using express digital wallet and he/she can take advantage of the card’s reward, mileage, promotion and installment opportunities.

Also the cardholder doesn’t need to enter all his/her card data in his/her every purchasing attempt. If the online merchant is integrated with express, then the cardholder knows that there is no need to re-enter any card data, it is only a matter of selecting the one time entered cards. express digital wallet is expected to have a positive effect on the increase of e-commerce volume in Turkey.

In the future, express digital wallet will include contactless, mobile payments and money transfer functions. Express will be the way of fast transaction experience in all possible card usage media. Express is an important step towards “Cashless Society.” By the year 2023, 100th year of Turkish Republic, Turkey aims to be the first country in the world where all the payment transactions are executed through payment systems.

• How does Turkey’s commerce system compare to those in other countries? Is e-commerce use fairly widespread? How do consumers like to pay for the things they buy (credit, debit, cash, prepaid)?

Total Turkish merchant e-commerce sales have increased with an average of 50 percent for the last two years. In 2011 total volume in Turkish e-commerce merchants reached 13.6 billion USD and 126 million transactions.

According to Card Monitor Research of BKM, 94 percent of respondents prefer to make their e-commerce purchases with their credit cards.

As of July 2012, there are 53 million credit cards, 86 million debit cards and 1.8 million prepaid debit cards in Turkey.

• Is mobile device usage widespread in Turkey?

According to the Telecommunication Authority report; there are 65.8 million mobile subscribers and mobile penetration rate is 88% by the end of 2012 Q1.

• Beyond your partners at the nine banks you mention, have any other payment companies assisted in the development of this solution? How closely did you work with the banks to deploy this solution?

Express digital wallet is designed by BKM & the banks, and built jointly with e-commerce merchants based on their contributions.

• You say that by 2023 Turkey will be cashless. Is that what consumers want, what merchants want, what the government wants, or all three?

Turkish Payment Systems have become the choice of consumers and merchants thanks to the innovative products, services, campaigns and utilization of advanced technology. Shopping with cash has begun to shift towards payment systems. In Turkey, the ratio of payment systems within household final consumption expenditure is 30 percent. This rate was 8 percent in 2000. Turkey’s banks aim to increase this rate to 100 percent in 2023.

• Could this solution be rolled out to other countries?

Express is developed as a solution for Turkish banks’, merchants’ and cardholders’ requirements. For the time being, there is no such strategy for international roll-out.