According to Hungarian National Bank figures, there are 74,000 shops equipped with 90,000 POS terminals, 36% of which have a contactless function, as well as nearly 2 million contactless bank cards1.

“Wherever the contactless technology, such as PayPass is available, contactless (NFC2) payments can also be made with suitable mobile telephones. Considering that 95.4 per cent of all Hungarian households have one or more mobile telephones3, with more than 700,000 active smartphone users4 among them, it is easy to imagine the huge potential that exists in Hungary in the field of innovative, mobile based payments” – EndreEölyüs, MasterCard’s Country Manager for Hungary and Slovenia says.

(Sources of data: Hungarian National Bank, Central Statistics Office, IASB Hungary research.) Mobile payments can take place in the form of tapping an appropriate (NFC compatible) smartphone to a suitable bank card terminal in a shop, or in the form of shopping online, using a shopping application on a smartphone.

To make both physical and online shopping easier, smartphones can be equipped with “mobile wallets” developed by various suppliers, securely storing and handling personal banking data that are necessary for payment. Electronic devices are taking an increasingly greater role in paying for goods in shops.

Using a mobile telephone instead of a bank card for paying in a shop is a logical solution, considering that most people carry their mobile phones with them at all times, whereas it happens more often that they don’t have their wallets, bank cards or bonus point collection cards on them. “It’s increasingly visible how every device is becoming a shopping device in Hungary too, be it used at the cashier’s desk in a real shop or in online shopping,” says EndreEölyüs.

As for online shopping trends in Hungary, statistics show that one in three Hungarian adults has already ordered goods via the internet and 15 per cent of Hungarians regularly do shopping online5, using their various electronic devices (computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet) to access the internet (Source: Central Statistics Office).

The number of online purchases made by mobile telephones in Hungary has increased by more than 50 per cent from January 2010 to December 2013, bringing the total number of mobile purchases at the end of last year to over 13 million (Source: Hungarian National Bank6).

MasterCard’sBudapest Office aims to steer the transition in Hungary towards innovative cashless paymentsby supporting pilot projects to develop various mobile payment applications such as the MobilTárca, a mobile wallet integrating payment, ordering and bonus point collection functions that is currently tested by users; or the OTPay, a newly launched mobile payment application by OTP Bank that is using MasterCard’s simple and safe, one-stop-shop global checkout system called MasterPass™.

“With our local pilot projects that introduce MasterCard’s latest global innovations in Hungary, we try to give Hungarian consumers the comfort and speed in mobile payment or online shopping that they are accustomed to when using their traditional or contactless bank cards. We want to make sure that payment at all times and places will be a safe, simple and pleasant experience.” – EndreEölyüs says.

Press release by LocalTime Budapest