MKB Bank, Hungary’s fourth largest commercial bank has today announced it is the first in the country to take a leap towards digital and open banking after transforming its entire technology system. Its transformation has included a full replacement of its core banking system, the retirement and consolidation of roughly 10 additional systems, and the modernization of its entire IT architecture.

MKB implemented Oracle FLEXCUBE, a core banking solution that has been adopted by more than 600 financial institutions around the world, as part of a broader restructuring project to streamline its internal and customer-facing operations and provide customers with more personalized services across multiple channels. MKB’s aim is to reduce its go-to-market time for new services such as corporate and retail lending, as well as 

digital only services, and to manage customer requests more quickly and easily. 

“It is not every day that a historically conservative medium-sized player commits its resources to modernizing its systems, changing its culture and taking a leap towards digitalization” said Ádám Balog, Chief Executive Officer, MKB. “It is through the reliability of partners like Oracle and the management of our stakeholders that we were able to make this move in such short a time.”

“Banks still have some catching up to do when it comes to serving customers. It’s time to stop resisting change and develop a model based on the way people want to interact with banking services,” said Mark Hetenyi, Chief Digital, Retail and Strategy officer, MKB. “This starts with a robust digital offering. We replaced our core banking platform with Oracle FLEXCUBE because it supports fully digital customer experiences.”

MKB was intent on fast-tracking its technology program. Despite having comparatively fewer resources than major global banks operating in Hungary, MKB achieved its digital transformation in just two and a half years. The average deployment for projects of this scope typically takes between four and five years.

“MKB recognized that digital services are a key differentiator. As a bank with its eyes firmly planted on the future of customer service, MKB’s bullish implementation of our flexible Oracle FLEXCUBE technology has put it in a position to pull ahead in a competitive Hungarian market,” said Sonny Singh, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Financial Services.