In less than a year from now, on 1^st July 2019, the instant payment system of Hungary will go live - fundamentally changing the way Hungarians make payments.   

The implementation of the instant payment system is an historic step not only for GIRO, a leading provider of services to financial institutions in Hungary, but for the entire Hungarian financial system, because it will bring changes and significant advantages to all participants in the national payment ecosystem.

The new payment system will operate 24/7/365 and will settle all single credit transfers up to the value of HUF 10 million within five seconds. It will also enable consumers to initiate instant credit transfers using just a mobile telephone number – so that the payer does not need to know the payee’s bank account details to transfer funds.

The ‘Request to Pay’ service is often referred to as an alternative payment method to the so called ‘yellow cheque’, a common method of paying utility bills in Hungary, because the execution of the payment by the bank is always subject to the payer’s authorisation.

The central infrastructure of instant payments will be developed and implemented by GIRO Zrt. in partnership with Nets A/S group. Nets is one of Europe’s leading digital payment service providers, with instant payments solutions already live in Denmark, Italy and Slovenia.

GIRO has recently completed a major milestone in its instant payment implementation project. Nets has delivered the bespoke instant clearing software on time, which has all the necessary Hungary-specific features and meets all quality requirements. GIRO has configured the hardware infrastructure required for the installation and operation of the clearing software. Initial testing has been completed and the results are very promising.

GIRO Zrt. is committed to delivering the instant payment system on time. The timely completion of the project’s first major milestone demonstrates this commitment, and will serve as a foundation for future successes.