A seminar titled „Financial Infrastructures, Payments and Cyber Security” was held by Magyar Nemzeti Bank between 22-24 November 2023, in which foreign professionals from the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central and East Asia attended, representing 18 central banks and supervisory authorities. The event took place within the framework of the Technical Cooperation Programme launched in the beginning of 2023, which aims to strengthen the international exchange of professional knowledge and best practices, and to build valuable relationships with other central banks.
The third seminar of the programme focused on key topics such as the renewal of financial infrastructures, innovative payment systems and the increasingly important cyber security. Electronic payment solutions have developed dynamically in recent years and have become the fundamental element of a modern, internationally competitive economy. The MNB speakers presented the Hungarian Instant Payment System in detail, which was implemented as one of the central bank's main priorities. With its launch a new era began in payments in Hungary and resulted the successful digital transition of the banking sector as the main Hungarian financial innovation of the past thirty years. Participants also learnt about the main factors influencing payment habits and best practices for promoting electronic payments via group assignments.
The audience was also able to learn about the tools introduced to mitigate fraud in the retail payment market, as well as the MNB’s experiences on IT and cyber security. Nowadays, due to the faster digitization developments, financial institutions have to face more complex and an increasing number of information security risks and threats, therefore the topic of cyber risks and cyber security becomes of paramount importance.
Themed “Stability and Innovation”, the MNB Technical Cooperation Programme offers four seminars over the year, covering both conventional central banking functions and the most current, technology-driven developments of the financial landscape. The introductory brochure of the program, which contains detailed description of the seminars, is available on MNB's webpage.
Within the framework of the new programme, an additional seminar will be organized in 2023 in Budapest in the theme of “Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policymaking“ on 6-8 December 2023, and then the programme will continue with four more seminars next year.