Hungary's central bank (MNB) has announced that it will launch instant bank transfers on July 1st, 2017. Their eventual aim is to move away from credit cards so that customers can use a "mobile wallet".
According to Portfolio.hu, the new online banking service will be available seven days-a-week, 24 hours-a-day and it will take five seconds for the transferred money to arrive at its destination.
The bank also intends on adding new security measures which will speed up the transfer process.
Plastic cards will slowly disappear from the Hungarian market within five to ten years, experts agreed. They believe smartphones will be taking their place and customers will carry around "mobile wallets". The instant bank transfer system could bring about a breakthrough in this respect, the bank claims.
Lajos Bartha, MNB's Financial Infrastructures Director, said that the central bank will be "breathing down the necks" of commercial banks until the deadline to ensure everything runs smoothly and is ready for launch.