The MNB Student Safe received a special award at Mastercard's Bank of the Year Gala

Budapest, 23 February 2024 – In the 2023 Mastercard Bank of the Year Gala Awards the Student Safe mobile application of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank received a special prize in the "Financial Solution of the Year for Young People" category. The Student Safe mobile application, operated by the MNB was created with the involvement of commercial banking partners and FinTech companies, and aims to strengthen the financial awareness of the 8-14-year-old age group. The award was accepted on behalf of the MNB by Anikó Szombati, CDO and Executive Director and Péter Fáykiss, Director of Digitalization, and by Ferenc Kementzey, Deputy CEO, on behalf of Raiffeisen Bank.

In 2023, the renewed version of the MNB Student Safe app was published, which is an innovative financial and educational mobile application jointly initiated by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) and the Money Compass Foundation. The mobile application, operated by the MNB and involving commercial banking and FinTech partners, is now able of handling real money. The mobile application is available to all Hungarian students and their parents in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.

Within the realms of the Bank of the Year competition – which was created by Mastercard 18 years ago - the actors of the domestic banking sector measured themselves in seven categories in the field of the best services, products, solutions or programs. In the " Financial Solution of the Year for Young People" category, MNB and its commercial banking partner, Raiffeisen Bank, submitted a tender with the Student Safe mobile application, and OTP Mobil also actively participated in the initiative. Based on the decision of the professional jury, the innovative solution won a Special Award at this year's gala. The award was accepted on behalf of the MNB by Anikó Szombati, CDO and Executive Director and Péter Fáykiss, Director of Digitalization, and by Ferenc Kementzey, Deputy CEO, on behalf of Raiffeisen Bank.

The Student Safe mobile application focuses primarily on the 8-14-year-old age group and their parents. A key objective of the MNB and the Money Compass Foundation is to improve young people's financial literacy and strengthen digital financial inclusion. In this context, the mobile app allows children to learn in a playful way by answering quiz questions on financial, digitalisation and sustainability topics. By successfully completing the quizzes, students can collect so-called student tallérs, that can be redeemed for webshop (eMAG) vouchers. In addition, the new Student Safe mobile app allows users to try out using money in a digital form, initiating transfers to bank accounts, saving money by setting goals that are important to them, and making purchases using SimplePay Instant Transfer QR code payments. In the mobile app, which can be used with parental supervision, parents can also support their children by sending regular, or one-off pocket money in the form of either forints or student tallérs.

The Student Safe is the MNB's pilot project related to central bank digital currency (CBDC) research, which was created in cooperation with domestic FinTech companies and commercial banks. The electronic money accounts of the students and their parents are managed directly by the MNB, so the Student Safe initiative is the first pilot project in the European Union in which the central bank involves real residential users in order to gain the experience needed for CBDC research. Due to the pilot nature, the mobile application is constantly being fine-tuned, so that the central bank can prepare for the challenges related to the future of money with valuable knowledge and technological readiness.

MNB Communication