ACI Worldwide powers 75% of Hungary’s real-time payments

By Megha Bhattacharya

ACI Worldwide announced that it currently powers approximately 75% of Hungary’s real-time payments, after the implementation of the country’s domestic real-time scheme. The scheme requires all transactions below $34 k to be processed immediately. ACI stated that many Hungarian banks and intermediaries, including OTP Bank, Erste Bank Hungary (EBH), and Takarékinfo, are leveraging its Real-Time Payments solution to capitalize on the expected rise in digital transaction volumes.

The company’s customers have connected to the country’s domestic real-time scheme, marking a transition from the batch-based legacy system, IG2. The go-live has been supported by ACI Worldwide partners Capsys and T-Systems.

“The launch of the domestic real-time scheme in Hungary presents an opportunity for financial institutions to drive new levels of digital transaction volumes and develop new digital overlay services,” said Craig Ramsey, general manager and head of real-time payments, ACI Worldwide.

“Banks in Hungary are some of the first in the region to fully future-proof their payments infrastructure while laying the foundations for growth. ACI’s solutions ensure that financial institutions can take advantage of the new opportunities PSD2 and real-time payments present by delivering openness while also ensuring the highest levels of privacy, data protection, and fraud prevention for their clients.”

OTP Bank is currently utilising ACI’s Real-Time Payments solution to connect to the scheme as well as its API Manager capabilities; both solutions serve as the architectural foundation for the bank’s enterprise-wide Open Banking strategy. Hungarian banking IT systems integrator, Takarékinfo, has also been leveraging Real-Time Payments solution to connect three top 10 Hungarian banking to the new scheme—the Takarek Group, Budapest Bank, and MKB Bank. Erste Bank Hungary uses the company’s Retail Payments solution to meet real-time balance compliancy requirements for the domestic real-time scheme and PSD2.

“As a leading payment solution integrator, we have met our first large challenge of instant payments; it is a new banking paradigm we have seen built by some of the best in the industry — our clients and ACI, T-Systems, and ourselves. But the change has just begun, and we are preparing for the new challenges of the API economy by building a new payment ecosystem together with our bank customers,” said Zoltan Szeles, founder and CEO, Capsys.