MNB receives prestigious international award for the launch of instant payments in Hungary

To recognise the successful launch of the Instant Payment System on 2 March 2020 and the outstanding Hungarian model in the international scene, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) received the Central Banking Institute’s highly prestigious award on 22 March 2021 in the category of Payments and Market Infrastructure Development.

The Central Banking Award, created by the organisation, is to recognise the world’s central banks making outstanding achievements. The award is granted primarily for ground-breaking solutions, innovative approaches and services as well as the best practices within the scope of central banks’ activities. The applicants are judged by a committee comprised of renowned former central bank experts, managers and recognised economists.

In 2021, the MNB came out as the winner in the category of Payments and Market Infrastructure Development, which proves that in the esteemed panel’s assessment, the Hungarian approach and operational model of instant payments and the success of the implemented system are unique even by international standards. In the official information release on the announcement of the winners, the following were highlighted: mandatory participation in the system and the resulting unprecedented coverage offered by the service, the perfect timing of the launch in the face of coronavirus, the extraordinary mechanism supporting an exceptional level of the system’s safety due to banks’ liquidity management, collateralised central bank lending options outside the operating hours of the MNB’s real time gross settlement system.

However, the award received by the MNB is not only meant to acknowledge the central bank, but also all the other participants engaging in the development of the domestic system, namely GIRO Zrt., operating the central infrastructure and the entire Hungarian banking sector. Launching the Instant Payments System on 2 March 2020 sent domestic payments into a new dimension, which allows participants to use modern, interoperable electronic payments services meeting consumer needs in full in the 21st century in all payment situations.

The official information release of the international organisation, the Central Banking Institute, with a great number of central banks among their members, may be accessed at the link below:

Payments and market infrastructure development – retail: Central Bank of Hungary - Central Banking