UBB has announced yet another innovation that will substantially facilitate the making of fund transfers in a digital environment. The announcement was made at this year’s edition of the DigiPay conference, held on 8th October in Inter Expo Centre, Sofia. Upon a conversation with Kate and asking her through either a text or voice as to how to order a fund transfer a dialogue will be initiated, and the digital assistant will make a check about available templates or entries in the list of contacts in the device, based on particular words in the inquiry and will offer assistance for creating a desired fund transfer type.

The guests at the event watched a demonstration, showing that after a made inquiry about Blink P2P transfers to a mobile number from a cardholder’s account to Kate, UBB’s digital assistant found in the list of contacts the name of the person to whom she had to transfer funds and after making the respective confirmations and obtaining a signature, she ordered the desired payment to him, and it was received within seconds.

„UBB has made a revolutionary step forward in payments within a digital environment, by enabling for the first time in Bulgaria the execution of fund transfers based on voice instructions with the help of our digital assistant Kate. “, commented Tatyana Ivanova, Executive Director Digitalization, Data and Operations at UBB, Innovation Leader of KBC Group for Bulgaria. „Our common aspiration is to follow the expectations of our customers and to provide them with not just services, but with customer experience, enabling them to make their payments in a fast, easy and at the same time secure way “, she added.

According to the Innovation Leader of KBC Group in Bulgaria, the nationwide campaign for offering free-of-charge Blink P2P transfers to mobile number, amounting up to BGN 100, is an excellent example of the joint efforts of banks in combating and reducing cash and in the creating of habits for easy and instant cashless payments. „Our aim is to promote the P2P payments between individuals as an alternative to cash payments. Thus our customers would simultaneously reduce both the price, because they save themselves the cash withdrawal fees, and also the time spent in going to the ATM to withdraw funds etc...“.

In terms of the main trends in the digitalization and innovations domain, aimed at end customers, she highlighted the ever-expanding scope of the services, which the mobile applications of banks will offer and their transformation into so-called lifestyle apps. As an example, Ms. Ivanova pointed out the present functionalities of UBB Mobile, among which those for purchasing a vignette, payment of a travel insurance, locating of charging stations for e-vehicles, etc.

The Digi Pay 2024 Conference had as its focus instant payments and financial fraud. The discussion panels were joined by series of experts, among whom  - Yosif Yosifov, Head of Banking Department at the Bulgarian National Bank, Valeri Valchev, Chairman of the Bulgarian Fintech Association, co-founder of Paynetics,  Eric Ducoulombier Head of Retail Trade and Payments, DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets, Tatyana Ivanova, Executive Director Digitalization, Data and Operations at UBB, Innovation Leader of KBC Group for Bulgaria, Stoilka Arsova, National Card and Payment Scheme Director at BORICA AD, Hristiyan Prashkov, Senior Manager Digital Banking, UniCredit Bulbank and others.