BCP let Peruvians freeze their bank account at any corner-store card reader

More than 4,000 mobile phones were stolen daily in Peru, and each one typically doubled as a banking credential: the victim's usual way of calling their bank, using its app, or receiving a verification code to freeze the account was gone in the same instant they needed it most.

Existing fraud-prevention advice — call your bank immediately — assumed the victim still had a phone. BCP had no fast channel for someone standing on a street corner with nothing but their ID number and a stolen-phone panic, and building a new physical network of emergency kiosks would have taken years and heavy capital.

BCP turned the country's existing card-payment terminals — already installed in more than 17,500 grocery stores, pharmacies and hardware shops — into an emergency channel: a theft victim walks into any of them, enters their ID number and PIN, and blocks their account on the spot, no phone or app required.

Turned existing card-payment terminals into emergency channels: a victim enters ID and PIN at any corner store to block their account, no phone needed.

Terminals were already ubiquitous in stores, so no new hardware rollout was needed.

Customers already trusted and knew how to use card readers, removing adoption friction.

A terminal only needs an ID and PIN, which theft victims still have, bypassing the lost phone bottleneck.

Software integration allowed terminals to accept a block instruction, avoiding merchant retraining.

When your primary emergency channel is likely to be unavailable, repurpose existing physical touchpoints as a backup instead of building new infrastructure.

Saved a reported $7.8 million in projected stolen funds and cut money-theft reports by 48% in the first four months, reusing terminals already in place rather than building new infrastructure. Won the Creative Data Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026. SOS POS won the Creative Data Grand Prix at Cannes Lions 2026 and is being studied by other Latin American banks facing similar phone-theft rates; because it reuses infrastructure merchants already had, expanding it to more terminals and more countries requires no new hardware, only integration.