Dr Mihály Patai
Deputy Governor (International Relations, Cash Logistics, Financial Infrastructures, Digitalisation and Lending Incentives), Magyar Nemzeti Bank
The same project from three different perspectives During the joint work on the introduction of the instant payment service in Hungary, I was fortunate enough to obtain first-hand experience about the most important development in the history of Hungarian electronic payments to date from several vantage points. When I first heard about the Magyar Nemzeti Bank’s idea of introducing the system as the chairman and CEO of UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt. and the president of the Hungarian Banking Association, I had no inkling that I would be switching seats to sit at the table where the key decisions influencing the design of the central system, the introduction of the service provided to end-users and the participants’ preparations were being made, at the most critical stage of the project. I welcomed and supported the initiative since its inception, but it was clear to me that a major challenge would have to be overcome by all the players involved in the process of implementation. I am sure that the overwhelming majority of the stakeholders had completed large-scale and complex development projects before, one only needs to think of the introduction of the Hungarian intraday credit transfer system, but I believe that we had never been involved in a project of this magnitude. This is because ensuring 24/7 access to a service optimised for normal working days required most operational banking processes to be revisited and restructured in some way and also significantly enhanced. At the same time, as the banking sector had been experiencing increasing pressure as a result of digitisation processes and the increasing presence of new service providers
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