AikBank: Revolutionizing Digital Payments with the Verestro Token Management Platform
- Ignacy Korytko
- Jun 24
- 3 min read
Updated: Jun 25
In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital finance, banks must constantly innovate to meet customer demands for secure, convenient, and seamless payment solutions. AikBank, a leading financial institution in Serbia, recognized this imperative and embarked on a strategic initiative to enhance its digital payment offerings. This case study details the successful implementation of Verestro’s card tokenization solutions at AikBank, highlighting the challenges overcome and the significant impact on the bank's mobile payment capabilities.
Table of Contents:
About AikBank
AikBank stands as one of the fastest-growing financial institutions in Serbia, having solidified its presence on the Serbian banking market. Thanks to an ambitious development strategy, numerous acquisitions, and an innovative approach to banking, the bank has become a key player in the financial services sector in Serbia.
Headquartered in Belgrade and with a history dating back to the 1970s, AikBank offers a wide range of products and services for both individual and business clients, while playing an important role in supporting the local economy, across all clients segments: from individuals and entrepreneurs, to small and medium-sized businesses, to large corporate clients and public sector.
The Tokenization Project: Enhancing Digital Payment Services
To enhance its digital payment services, AikBank selected the Verestro Token Management Platform. This solution enables secure provisioning and life‑cycle management of payment tokens, laying the groundwork for seamless contactless digital wallet use.
This timing provided an optimal window: AikBank’s tokenization platform was implemented during the broader roll-out of Google Pay in Serbia - positioning the bank to offer secure, future-ready mobile payment options across ecosystems.
Challenges
The implementation of a new card tokenization platform, especially one designed to meet the growing customer expectation for digital wallet support, presented several key challenges. Verestro's expertise and collaborative approach were instrumental in navigating these complexities.
1. Multi-Vendor Architecture
The bank’s IT environment included multiple external development partners, each managing different systems. Coordinating this diverse ecosystem required seamless integration, where Verestro’s expertise and proven experience played a key role in ensuring smooth, end-to-end project delivery across all stakeholders.
2. Regulatory Requirements for Enhanced Fraud Controls
Serbian financial regulators mandated custom fraud prevention rules, going beyond standard tokenization security measures. To meet these requirements, Verestro worked closely with AikBank to develop and integrate advanced custom rules, including:
- IP Source Validation: Restricting provisioning based on the allowed country IP source.
- Geolocation Rules: Blocking token requests from locations outside of approved regions.
- Mobile Phone Number rule – checking the mobile phone number received from MDES and compare to mobile phone number received from issuer. If the number does not match, this may result in additional user verification
Solution: The Verestro Token Management Platform
The solution was delivered through a modular API platform, allowing for tight integration with the bank’s existing systems and third-party vendors. This minimized disruption while accelerating time-to-market.
A key requirement from AikBank - and a regulatory priority - was data minimization. The implementation was done without Verestro storing cardholder data.
Alongside the API platform, the solution included a comprehensive Admin Panel that gives AikBank’s internal teams full control over daily operations. Features include: real-time token lifecycle management (activation, suspension, deactivation) and reporting tools, including Apple Pay report.
Successful Cooperation between AikBank & Verestro
AikBank successfully launched support for Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Mastercard for Merchant tokenization through Verestro’s Token Management Platform. During the first quarter of the launch (Q1 2024), over 30,000 tokenizations were recorded. The popularity of the solution continues to grow, now reaching over 13,000 tokenizations every month.
In today’s digital-first banking landscape, xPay solutions have become essential for banks to stay competitive, meet evolving customer expectations, and ensure seamless, secure mobile payments. At Verestro, we’re proud to have delivered a future-proof, compliant, and high-performing solution that empowers AikBank to lead in the evolving digital payments space.
Verestro has proven to be a reliable and flexible partner. We continue to work closely with all our customers as the solution evolves, improving our platform to meet growing market demands and support future innovations.
