How the instant payment central infrastructure can be a payment solution at the same time — the Hungarian example

Instant payments are among the strongest growing technologies in the payment industry. Current trends and regulations indicate that instant payments will be ubiquitous in the coming years. That provides a solid foundation for a payment method leveraging modern technologies such as internet and smartphones. Instant payments, however, have not yet been used in all possible payment situations. Country-level projects implement the instant payments central infrastructure for interbank processing. All the existing solutions based on these infrastructures focus on a limited set of payment situations, using different technologies in different situations, thereby resulting in a diverse user experience. This paper is based on the results of the research and development project executed by Capsys Informatics Ltd. The approach of the research was to thoroughly analyse possibilities and find an optimal solution covering the most possible payment situations. First, it analyses what criteria a viable payment solution must meet: easy to use, cheap, fast, reliable, secure and widespread. The discussion examines in depth the three data transmission technologies that are most commonly used with smartphones (near field communication (NFC), quick response (QR) code and deep link), explaining how they serve user experience and how these three can be united into a unified data entry (UDE) method. The results of the research are summarised into an ecosystem blueprint (Capsys Smart Payment Solution). The project called ‘Instant Payment 2.0’ launched by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) is a unique initiative. It will result in an instant payment-based payment solution, using NFC, QR code and deep link data transmission technologies in a unified manner, covering multiple payment situations, mandating the banks to implement the solution in their mobile banking application. ‘qvik’ (as MNB has branded this solution) has all the potential to become the next big thing in payments in Hungary.