The Magyar Nemzeti Bank launched qvik in September 2024 as a merchant payment overlay on Hungary's AFR instant payment system. All Hungarian payment service providers are required to participate in AFR. This mandatory participation gives qvik universal bank coverage from launch. Consumers pay at physical and online merchants through QR codes, NFC tap, deep links, or request-to-pay flows. Transactions settle instantly in central bank money through VIBER.
QR, NFC, and link-initiated merchant transactions grew 344 percent in Q1 2025, the first full quarter after the September 2024 launch. Growth continued at 41 percent quarter-on-quarter in Q2 2025. By the end of June 2025, qvik was available at more than 31,000 merchant locations. Instant payment merchant transactions represented 0.18 percent of card payment volumes.
The average qvik merchant payment reached HUF 23,000 in Q2 2025, approximately EUR 59. This is 2.3 times the average card payment of HUF 10,000. The higher ticket size suggests consumers choose instant payments for purchases where lower processing costs create the strongest value proposition. Request-to-pay transactions reached 1.19 million in Q2 2025. These were worth HUF 527.4 billion. Volume grew 48.9 percent quarter-on-quarter. Value increased 81.4 percent over the same period. The average R2P payment was HUF 445,000, approximately EUR 1,100, indicating request-to-pay serves higher-value B2B and bill payment use cases.
GIRO operates a Central Fraud Screening System alongside AFR. The system provides rule-based and AI-driven risk scoring within 500 milliseconds, creating a shared protective layer for the entire market. ACI Worldwide projects AFR will process 471 million transactions annually by 2026. AFR processed approximately 212 million transactions in 2024. Achieving the 2026 target would place Hungary among the top per-capita real-time payment markets globally.
Hungary's qvik initiative tests whether central bank-mandated instant payments can capture point-of-sale share from card networks. The European Central Bank's digital euro project pursues a similar objective. Q3 and Q4 2025 expansion data for merchant locations and active promotion by banks will determine whether this model is replicable across European markets.