It is an especially hot summer in cities like Budapest. And, this year has not only been hot in Hungary, the change in political leadership may also be ushering in a new era for Hungarian fintechs. We looked into how well the Hungarian fintech ecosystem is doing today, and where it might grow.
On an exceptionally warm Thursday morning the DisruptionBanking team headed to Nor/ma Grand. The venue is a Nordic-style craft bakery, specialty café, and natural wine bar nestled in the green heart of Buda’s Millenaris / Szellkapu Park. It combines Scandinavian minimalism with Hungarian entrepreneurialism, a perfect setting for a meeting.
It’s where we met Zoltan Acs, the Chairman of the Hungarian Fintech Association. The timing is especially important as the new government of Peter Magyar takes shape.
One of the individuals in the new government responsible for startups (including fintechs) is Istvan Kapitany, Hungary’s new Minister of Economy and Energy. In May the minister told the press that “We don’t want zebras, but unicorns that succeed on the international stage.” Zebras, for context, are more modest, locally oriented companies.
There was much to discuss as we sat down to cups of coffee and plenty of mineral water.
Why fintechs choose Budapest over other European hubs
The conversation started with a discussion about Europe’s competitive landscape. Why would a fintech choose Budapest over the more familiar licensing hubs of Luxembourg, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus or the recent surge of interest in Latvia?
“It depends on the company, of course,” Acs began. He pointed to Pay10, the Indian-founded digital payments and financial services company best known for its mobile wallet, UPI payments and merchant solutions. Now headquartered in Dubai, Pay10 is building a global business from there and recently received its electronic money institution (EMI) licence from the National Bank of Hungary. Pay10 provides a solution based on the local domestic scheme.
“They were amazed by the quick instant payment system conducted by the National Bank of Hungary. This infrastructure is globally in the top five technology-wise. It’s highly robust. It’s reliable and provides excellent rails.”
Cost came second. “Budapest is still a high-skill, low-cost destination, like Warsaw or Prague.”
The third factor was the ideal market size as an entry country. “Hungary isn’t tiny, like Malta or Luxembourg, for example. With 9.6 million people, it’s the ideal size for testing a service before expanding into other European countries. For a company of this kind, where volume matters, a market that small simply doesn’t work: after a costly licensing process, they would have to expand into another country straight away.”
And finally came the personal factor. “Trust-based, personal relationships matter to every company, of course. In a country as popular for licensing as Luxembourg, so many licences are issued that the market is crowded. This makes the chances of building a genuinely good personal relationship slim. The chemistry between us worked well, and that helped a lot. At the Hungarian Fintech Association, we pay close attention to making sure that non-EU companies who come to us feel important.”
Hungary as an East-West fintech bridge
That sense of openness ties into a longer-standing idea of Hungary as a bridge between East and West. Acs was candid about the limitations of earlier foreign-policy efforts. “That was the foreign policy over the past couple of years.”
The diplomatic doors to places such as the Emirates, Singapore, and Ankara were already open. What was missing was substance. Fintech, he argued, supplies exactly that substance.
Turkish and other non-EU fintechs in particular see Hungary as a practical gateway into Europe. Political sensitivities that can arise in Germany, the Netherlands or France are largely absent here. “Hungary is a very good connection to the EU. The doors are open… that’s why it’s a chance for Hungary to acquire non-EU, very good fintech companies. I think it’s a gateway for them.”
Bank involvement in the Hungarian Fintech Association
Hungary is often described as relatively cash-heavy, yet Acs pushed back on the comparison. “It’s not as cash-based as some countries. Austrians and Germans still love cash, as do many Europeans.”
The deeper regulatory picture is more nuanced. Malta and Cyprus still carry reputational scars from past scandals. Lithuania has grown more cautious in its welcome. Hungary’s own framework is seen as serious enough while remaining accessible.
The Association itself reflects that mix. Four banks sit among its members: OTP, the digital-focused Granit Bank, the local Intesa Sanpaolo branch (CIB Bank), and Revolut. Revolut belongs to the Fintech Association rather than the banking association, which is unusual in Europe, Acs highlighted.
Membership fees are deliberately structured. Fintechs are prioritized. Banks, consultancies, and law offices have a different payment structure. Members can choose which activities to support, such as trade shows in Dubai or Singapore, or regulatory workstreams. “It’s not mandatory. You can choose what you need.”
Challenges for bank innovation in Hungary
Acs knows the internal challenges of the banks from personal experience. He spent five years as head of innovation at MBH Bank. “It was very difficult, mainly because the bank was in the middle of a long-running merger. Based on my experience, if I could give just one piece of advice to a large bank looking to renew itself, it would be this: if you want to build something radically innovative, build it separately, apart from the banking organization. Build it with a completely new culture and structure.”
The deeper cultural problem, he explained, stretches back centuries. Banks are designed to minimise error. “There is no room for errors… if there is no place for error, it means that it is much harder to innovate as well.” The common corporate response of simply acquiring an innovative company rarely solves the underlying organizational issue.
Strengths of the Hungarian fintech ecosystem
The ecosystem’s strongest pillars are not always built around pure licensed fintech challengers. Mid-sized software houses such as Dorsum, Intuitech, or Finshape deliver sophisticated solutions to banks and generate substantial revenue.
Crypto-focused firms, though fewer in number, punch above their weight. Cryptosoft has collected international awards and is an example of a strong Hungarian crypto startup. Hungary’s Blockben, meanwhile, was not only the first Hungarian team to receive a MiCA licence. It was also among the very first to do so in Latvia, and it operates with highly advanced technology.
Connecting these companies to decision-makers remains difficult. Innovation competence usually sits at headquarters level, whether London for Revolut, Vienna for Austrian banks, or Milan and Turin for Italian ones. The Association has begun organising targeted business forums in those cities to create direct matches.
Access to Hungarian banks themselves varies. Granit’s innovation work is closely linked to the highly collaborative Intuitech. MBH is currently restructuring its relationship with the fintech ecosystem: its earlier fintech lab has largely wound down, and the bank is exploring other opportunities. OTP is more open, with an active corporate venture capital portfolio and residual lab activity. Still, Acs noted a recurring sentiment: “Sometimes I feel that a good bank in one of the GCC countries or in Singapore is more accessible than a European one.”
Optimism under new Hungarian leadership
The political shift has changed the atmosphere. When the Association co-hosted an event with Czech counterparts in June, the visiting startups left with a clear impression. “Their feeling was that there is a very dynamic and a very optimistic crowd in Budapest… They were impressed to see this.”
The Restart Hungary gathering a few weeks earlier brought together multiple associations, individuals and working groups. The result is a practical “manual” for the new government. It prioritises measures by importance and difficulty.
Acs sits on the corporate-innovation working group. The central insight is not a request for more money or new government agencies. “The financial sector doesn’t need money… The issue is how can we reduce the risk of the first customer. This is the venture client. This is the most crucial problem in Hungary, because nobody wants to take risk.”
Middle management incentives often kill experiments. KPIs that reward only risk-free delivery leave little room for pilots that might fail. Best practices from elsewhere cannot simply be copied. “We wouldn’t copy the Estonian key of success because it’s a different story, and we wouldn’t copy Israel… We have to find our own story and own formula of success.”
Key people behind the Hungarian Fintech Association
Acs is careful not to present the Association as a one-man show. Viktoria Humpfner, the general secretary and an experienced licensing lawyer, has handled PSD2 authorisations and worked on EMI licences for most of the relevant Hungarian companies. Viktoria Glozer-Say, who works at KPMG, leads the legal working group. Sonia Lauri, previously part of Acs’s team at MBH, drives projects. Laura Gal handles operations. Lilla Boros, currently on maternity leave but planning to return, is expected to build out an education pillar drawing on the design-thinking programmes she ran for hundreds of bank employees in the past.
The board has recently expanded. New members include Viktor Bodnar of the MiCA-regulated BlockBen, Akos Demeter of the EMI neobank Binx. They join Andras Rung of Ergomania, Peter Faykiss (formerly of the National Bank of Hungary, now at Hold Asset Management), Nora Szeles of the crowdfunding platform Tokeportal, Balint Reti of the embedded-finance firm PastPay, and Sandor Kiss of Barion. Barion is one of the more successful Hungarian fintechs, active across six European markets and already past the €100 million valuation mark.
As the mineral water glasses emptied and the heat intensified outside, the conversation circled back to the same question. Strong infrastructure, competitive costs, warm networks and a new political mood are all in place. Whether they produce the unicorns the minister has called for will depend on turning openness into first customers, and first customers into scale. For now, the people at the centre of Hungarian fintech sound more optimistic and organised than they have in years. The doors are open.
Author: Andy Samu
See Also:
Is Poland’s Regulatory Environment Limiting Its Crypto Market? | Disruption Banking
Could Hungary Build Its Own Tech Prosperity Deal in 2026? | Disruption Banking
Is Hungary’s R34DY the Answer to Banking’s Legacy Systems Crisis? | Disruption Banking
