MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK
3.1 Establishment of the central system and the initiation of the system participants’ tests The MNB and GIRO stayed on the predetermined schedule with the developments; and therefore, the central infrastructure of the instant payment system launches on 1 July 2019, as originally intended. The first phase of the establishment of the central infrastructure at GIRO was successfully concluded on 31 July 2018, with the delivery of the central software and the establishment of the related infrastructure. Based on the tests that were run, the software versions delivered by the Danish Nets A/S Group contained few problems relative to the complexity of the system. By the end of 2018, the infrastructure necessary for beginning the tests was also established at the MNB and GIRO, and thus the tests between the MNB and GIRO started in December. On 31 January 2019, the last major version of the central system was delivered by the supplier on schedule; therefore, the testing of this version as well as addressing and correcting the errors which occurred in parallel with that started in February 2019. At the same time, the creation of the platform identical to the live system in all its parameters and suitable for testing was started so that performance testing could be performed under real-life conditions. Besides the testing of the system’s functionality, performance tests were also run in 2019 Q1, which confirmed the expected requirements. During this, the tests related to the speed and availability of the system confirmed that the processing capability was in line with the expected maximum 500 transactions per second indicator. In addition, preparation for going live continued, as did development of the live business platform. In parallel with the establishment of the central system, developments also took place by the future system participants; therefore, the testing phase could commence at the end of 2018. The technical connection tests were successfully completed at the end of the year, and thus the necessary connections were established. After that, in January 2019, the voluntary system participant business tests began, during which participants could test the central system with full functionality. Most system participants
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PAYMENT SYSTEMS REPORT • JULY 2019
progressed with the preparations in line with their own predetermined schedule, but in some cases there were already reports of late deliveries. After the voluntary tests, the mandatory system participant testing phase was launched on 1 April 2019, during which the complexity of the testing increased, and more issues were discovered by the system participants. The MNB closely monitored the progress of each system participant. Although most players progressed with the preparation for going live as originally planned, in some cases major risks and delays were identified. At some system participants, these issues affected the complete and successful conclusion of the testing phase, and, in certain cases, the feasibility of going live as originally planned. According to the decision of the MNB, the instant payment service will be accessible to all Hungarian bank customers uniformly and with full functionality from 2 March 2020. Bearing in mind the fully secure operation of the instant payment service offered to customers and the in-depth analysis of banks’ development and test results, the MNB decided to extend the time available for testing the live systems. The go-live date was postponed to 2 March 2020 to allow all participants adequate time to finalise and fully test the developments. However, the central system goes completely live on 1 July 2019 so that the full functionality can be tested, and a live test run can be integrated into the process, as a result of which, according to the expectations, customers will have access to a fully mature system from 2 March 2020. System participants can participate in the live test run between 1 July 2019 and 31 August 2019 on a voluntary basis. After that, from 1 September 2019, all participants will be required to join. To ensure the uniform go-live date of 2 March 2020, a tight, detailed schedule has been developed for the live test run, setting demanding requirements for system participants. In addition, system participants will have more time to be able to provide innovative payment solutions based on the core infrastructure to their customers from the go-live date, thereby supporting the rapid spread of instant payments.
