Page 26 - RBI FIntech Atlas 2018

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Spotlight Hungary
Parliament building in Budapest, Hungary
According to the Hungarian National Bank, the local ntech scene has a receptive domestic audience.
15 to 20% of the country’s population is interested in ntech solutions and around one million consumers are open to actively using ntech innovations. The solutions already available in Hungary cover a range of areas including personal nance management, payment solutions, community lending, robo advisory and blockchain.
Based on the same survey, one obstacle to the growth of ntechs in Hungary is the concern about data protection, especially in connection with robo advisory services. Most customers would not use a service that is not subject to legal safeguards, despite its clear bene ts. In addition to this, only 15% of the public believe that bank branches will disappear to the extent that such robo advisory services become necessary.
The Hungarian National Bank was one of the rst in the region to support innovation in the nancial sector in the shape of its regulatory sandbox. This provides an isolated test environment for nancial innovation at the national level in which nancial institutions and ntechs can test new services under regulatory control by temporarily lifting certain regulatory obligations.
In Hungary a number of investors such as FinTechZone, MKB Fintechlab, BnL Start Partners and the Hungarian National Bank itself are actively involved in the ntech solutions market. MKB Fintechlab, for example, has invested through its incubation program in a variety of ntech solutions ranging from the automated asset manager Blueopes to the payment solution provider Pago. OTP (OTPLab) and KH (Start it @KH) also operate accelerator programs and provide incubation opportunities for ntech startups.
One of Hungary’s largest educational institutions, Corvinus University, offers specialist courses in its Fintech Center. These lead to a series of quali cations including undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.