3.2 Discontinued overnight clearing of credit transfers

As of 2016, the credit transfers currently cleared in the overnight clearing system of the iCS are also set to be transferred into the intraday clearing system.

In parallel with the enhancement of intraday clearing, the overnight clearing platform of ICS is to be phased out gradually, initially affecting the credit transfers initiated by the Hungarian State Treasury and those submitted on paper by customers. After re-channelling such transactions, the overnight clearing system will process only transactions of core direct debits and other debit-type payment methods. The 4-hour time limit specified in payment legislation is currently applicable only to orders submitted electronically. In the case of paper-based transfer orders submitted by customers to payment service providers, the previous rules allowing execution within one day remained in effect at the launch of the intraday system, making it possible to continue sending such orders to the overnight clearing system. Nevertheless, a major part of payment service providers already send paperbased payment orders to the intraday system. The execution deadline for paper-based credit transfers is not set to change from 2016; however, service providers currently using the overnight system are required to re-channel their credit transfers to the intraday system by the beginning of next year.

In order to channel credit transfers out of the overnight clearing system, a solution is needed to manage the crediting of large volumes of transactions initiated by the Hungarian State Treasury on peak

days on payment service providers’ part. In order to ensure smooth execution, large volumes of credit transfers initiated simultaneously on specific days must be scheduled so that they do not cause disruptions to the management of other transactions on the payment service providers’ side. For the purpose of payments by the Hungarian State Treasury, peak days include the days on which pensions and other pensiontype benefits are paid, when about 1.5 million items need to be delivered to payees by credit transfer. This means that payment service providers with a larger number of pensioners in their customer base are at times required to receive and credit to the payment accounts held with them several times the average volume of credit transfers. Set to be implemented as of autumn 2015, higher cycle frequency and extended operating hours in the intraday clearing system enable payments to be scheduled and processed more flexibly. In order to ensure smooth transition, the MNB has started consultations with the Hungarian State Treasury and market participants.