Dr Barna Fömötör
Director General, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Challenges during the rollout of the instant payment system in a nutshell I feel that I am in a special position because during the introduction of the instant payment system in Hungary, by virtue of my role in the operational control of project implementation, I took part in creating a new solution that is not only interesting from a professional standpoint but also has a direct effect on all our lives. A few years ago, it was merely a utopian dream that by the time it takes for the reader to reach the end of this sentence, a credit transfer of HUF 10 million can be settled on a 24/7/365 basis, without any difficulties. However, these transactions have become integral elements in economic life, thanks to the emergence of the solutions facilitating instant payments. The instant payment system is a natural consequence of technological progress. Payments, which had been conducted by our ancestors with post-carts and ships laden with treasures for centuries, were fundamentally transformed by the boom in technology, telecommunications and IT in the 20th century. Sending payments over the phone and telefax became available in the 1960s and 1970s, with processing times of one or two weeks, then the 1980s saw the introduction of the clearing house solution enabling one-day net clearing, and from the 1990s RTGS systems for intraday, minute-based, gross settlement was used, then we arrived at the second-based, immediate clearing system of the 2010s aimed at cost-effectiveness. The increasingly fast technological changes in modern society, the Internet, Web 2.0, the appearance and rise of social media, the proliferation of fintech start-ups generated a pace of development that posed a fundamental challenge to the traditional standards of banking operations. In this technologically advanced environment and our fast-paced world, both society and individuals see it as essential that services are
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