Kristóf Takács
Project leader, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Exceptional opportunity for modernising payments After the introduction of intraday credit transfers in 2012, it became clear that despite the major progress and enhancement in service quality achieved with the rollout, this solution could not support the general use of electronic payments. Although the few hours of processing time considerably broadened the applicability of credit transfers on working days, this was not enough in several payment situations. It was evident that even with intraday credit transfers and the increasing popularity of card payments, further improvements were necessary, because the available infrastructures and the increasing number of new and innovative market participants would not be able to provide a viable alternative to cash use in every payment situation. In the end, the MNB started to assess the options for introducing the instant payment service in the summer of 2015. To engage in meaningful consultation with market participants, the options had to be carefully explored. During ten months of internal preparatory work, we examined in detail the planned or already operational systems abroad, the business and technical features of the available payment services and those planned by market participants for the years ahead as well as the implementation options of the potential operating models from a business, regulatory and technical perspective. The expected implications for banks’ liquidity management were also analysed, just like the possible legal framework of the implementation and the necessary legal amendments. The operation of the instant payment system was modelled on payment data from earlier years to produce appropriate estimates on banks’ liquidity needs in the new service and the system’s capacity needs. It was important to make it clear to all stakeholders at the beginning of our joint work why this development was necessary and what the options and
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