Borica and OpenWay have won the best partnership initiative award at the PAY360 Awards 2026 for their joint work on Bulgaria's payment system and its switch to the euro, Borica said. The award was presented at a ceremony in London.
The euro came into use in Bulgaria on 1 January 2026. The first euro withdrawal from an ATM was made 20 seconds after midnight. The systems ran for the first 48 hours with no unplanned outage. More than 930,000 card and ATM transactions went through them, worth almost €42m in total.
The project had one condition: payment services must not stop. Card payments and ATMs had to work from the first minute after the euro was introduced, and the national systems that payments depend on had to be rebuilt. More than 35 banks, payment providers, fintech firms, state bodies and technology partners took part in the preparation. Before the switch, there were large tests, simulations and rehearsals under real conditions.
Borica is a Bulgarian payment and card operator. It knows the country's payment services and coordinates the payment system. OpenWay provides the technology and the Way4 platform, which handles digital payments in real time. The two firms have worked together since 2018 to update the system that processes card payments in Bulgaria. The euro switch was the toughest real-world test of their partnership. They worked in close coordination on card processing.
Borica said the award recognises the long partnership and its part in one of the biggest changes in Bulgaria's payment sector. The initiative was chosen for its scale, its long-term nature and its real effect. The results were visible within the first seconds after the euro was introduced.
In July, the two firms also won two Global Transaction Banking Innovation Awards 2026 from The Digital Banker, BTA reported. The awards were for their role in Bulgaria's move to payments in euros.