Dublin, 18 September 2026 – “Fully leveraging technological capabilities is indispensable for successfully addressing the new challenges facing the financial sector,” according to MNB Governor Mihály Varga, who was speaking at the European Union’s informal meeting of economic and financial affairs ministers, as well as central bank governors (ECOFIN) in Dublin. Governor Varga pointed out that it was necessary to strengthen international cooperation between central banks, in order to achieve growth and competitiveness goals, and mitigate new types of risks.
Varga highlighted that in a rapidly developing technological environment, artificial intelligence could represent the key to future competitiveness and market success for financial institutions. Accordingly, in addition to the development of retail digital channels, transforming banking systems remained a priority task for central banks. He recalled that, in parallel with progress in digitalisation, the number and value of cyberfraud had also grown significantly in recent years. To address this and to preserve the trust in financial stability and the payment system, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank had acted proactively, announcing the “Five strikes” series of measures against cyberfraud in 2025. As he had previously noted, one of the programme’s most important pillars was the Central Fraud Detection System (CFDS), launched jointly by the MNB and GIRO Zrt. This solution analysed all immediate domestic credit transfers in real time with the help of artificial intelligence and had already reviewed almost 390 million transactions so far. Governor Varga highlighted that the European Union’s regulatory initiatives – including the EU Payments Package and the AI Act – were important milestones to further strengthen trust. According to Governor Varga, the long-term safety and competitiveness of the financial system could be guaranteed with a balance of regulation and innovation, as well as joint international action.
Magyar Nemzeti Bank