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Leaders
November 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 7
Dozen fintech initiatives made at Hungarian central bank's Innovation Hub
Financial technology companies and financial institutions have submitted a dozen initiatives to the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) since the launch of its Innovation Hub to support fintech businesses in March, the central bank and financial market watchdog said on October 30.
The MNB became the first central bank in the region to launch an Innovation Hub as it sees the transition to digital technologies essential for improving Hungary's competitiveness.
The MNB's goal is to support the safe spreading
of new fintech initiatives in financial markets while preserving financial stability. The Innovation Hub serves as an information sharing platform for the entire fintech ecosystem and a regulatory platform.
About one-third of the initiatives came from banks licensed by the MNB and fintech businesses accounted for the rest. The initiatives extend to the insurance and capital market sectors as well as the financial sector.
The MNB highlighted the steady expansion of the fintech sector with the recent agreement between UniCredit Bank's Hungarian unit and Alipay. The Italian lender became the first in Hungary to make
China's most widespread mobile payment Alipay available in the country from 2019.
The MNB also signed up to join the AI coalition with 70 university and academic research centres to work out strategies and guidelines for artificial intelligence development. An MNB survey found that one out of three companies in the financial sector already rely on the technology.
One of them is MKB, which became the first bank in Hungary to rely on robot advisors in its private banking unit, allowing private bankers to offer customised portfolios for their clients.
MKB, owned by Hungary’s second richest man Lorinc Meszaros, has taken an active role in harnessing fintech companies. MKB Fintechlab became Hungary's first bank-backed financial innovation lab, providing investment, incubation, office and a banking APIs.
The Budapest-based fintech company Blueopes, which won the Best Hungarian Fintech Startup
at the Central European Startup Awards in 2017, as well as BBVA global groupʼs Best Fintech for Sustainable Finance award in 2018, developed the technology for MKB.