# MNB QR / Qvik > Source: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/mnb-qr > research date 2026-05-29 · extracted at 2026-10-03 > Publisher: Barcoder — encyclopedia of QR, barcode and payment-code standards Specifications: - [MNB QR Code Guidelines — Magyar Nemzeti Bank](https://www.mnb.hu/letoltes/qr-kod-utmutato-20190712-en.pdf) - [Instant Payments Guidelines — MNB](https://www.mnb.hu/en/payments/instantpayments/guidelines) ## Overview **MNB QR Code** (and its consumer-facing brand **Qvik**) is **Hungary's national mandatory QR payment standard**, defined and promoted by the **Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB — Hungarian National Bank)** with **GIRO Zrt.** (Hungary's clearing house) as the operational partner [1][1], [2][2], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). It runs on **AFR (Azonnali Fizetési Rendszer — Hungarian Instant Payment System)**, which has been **MANDATORY for all Hungarian banks since 2 March 2020** — making Hungary the **only country in the world with mandatory instant payment coverage at the bank level** [3][3], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). The defining 2024 events: **MNB mandated QR code, NFC, and Deeplink implementation** for all instant-payment-participating banks (effective February 2024), and the consumer-facing **Qvik service launched 1 September 2024** as the unified merchant QR payment system [4][4], [5][5], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). Qvik launched with **~5,000 merchants**, grew to **20,000+ by end of 2024** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU), and offers **zero transaction fees** and **instant settlement (vs 2-day card settlement)** — structurally positioned to challenge card network dominance in Hungarian retail. ## History **Background — AFR (Azonnali Fizetési Rendszer)** [3][3], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - **Launch: 2 March 2020** — MNB-mandated instant payment system, the world's first mandatory-for-all-banks domestic instant-payment system. - **Operator**: GIRO Zrt. (Hungary's clearing house). - **Settlement**: Under 5 seconds. - **Limit**: HUF 10 million per transaction. - **24/7/365 availability**. - **Basis**: SEPA Instant Credit Transfer Scheme (SCT Inst). **Unique Hungarian regulatory approach** [3][3], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): MNB's mandate that **all Hungarian banks must implement and offer AFR** is structurally different from peer countries' voluntary or partial mandates. Most European countries didn't get equivalent regulatory pressure until **EU 2024/886 Instant Payments Regulation** (mandatory receiving Jan 2025, sending Oct 2025). Hungary was **four years ahead** on this regulatory move. **MNB QR Code Guidelines (July 2019)** [2][2], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): MNB published its **QR Code Guidelines** in July 2019 to standardise the QR format banks would use for AFR-mediated payments. This pre-dated the Qvik consumer brand by 5 years. **February 2024 mandates** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - **Mandatory Request to Pay (RTP)** capability for all AFR-participating banks. - **Mandatory QR code + NFC + Deeplink** implementation for all banks. **1 September 2024 — Qvik launches** [4][4], [5][5], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - Consumer-facing brand for the unified national QR payment system. - Built in collaboration between **MNB, GIRO Zrt., and Hungarian banks**. - Initial **5,000 merchants** at launch. - Target: **20,000+ merchants by end of November 2024** (target met) [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). - **Zero transaction fees** — directly challenging card-network economics. - **Exempt from transaction taxes** — additional regulatory advantage over cards. **Naming origin** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): "Qvik" was chosen from **50+ candidate names**, **inspired by [Swish QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/swish-qr) (Sweden) and [TWINT](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/twint) (Switzerland)**. The name reflects "quick" payment capability and is structurally similar in branding-style to other bank-consortium / central-bank-driven mobile-payment systems. ## Technical specification MNB QR Code runs on **AFR** (Hungarian Instant Payment System) with consumer-facing branding as **Qvik** [2][2], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): | Layer | Description | |---|---| | **Underlying rail** | **AFR (Azonnali Fizetési Rendszer)** — mandatory for all Hungarian banks since 2 March 2020 | | **Standard body** | **MNB (Magyar Nemzeti Bank)** + **GIRO Zrt.** | | **Settlement** | **Under 5 seconds** | | **Currency** | **HUF (Hungarian Forint)** — non-eurozone | | **Transaction limit** | HUF 10 million per transaction | | **Availability** | 24/7/365 | | **Compliance** | All AFR-participating Hungarian banks (mandatory) | | **Consumer brand** | **Qvik** (since 1 September 2024) | **MNB QR Code format** [2][2], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): | Property | Value | |---|---| | Character encoding | **UTF-8** | | Data fields | **17 mandatory data fields** (may be blank) | | Field separator | **LF (line feed) characters** — 17 LFs delimiting the fields | | Standard basis | HCT Inst (Hungarian Credit Transfer Instant) | | Format type | Plain text payload (not EMVCo TLV) | **Two QR Code types** [2][2], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): | Type | Purpose | |---|---| | **HCT QR (Credit Transfer QR)** | Pre-fills payment details (amount, beneficiary account, reference). Used for bills, invoices, merchant payments. | | **RTP QR (Request to Pay QR)** | Payer generates QR with their data; payee scans and sends payment request. Enables **reverse payment flow** — biller can request payment from payer. | **Qvik payment methods (since September 2024)** [4][4], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): | Method | Description | |---|---| | **QR Code** | Customer scans merchant's QR code | | **NFC** | Contactless tap with phone (NFC-equipped POS) | | **Payment Request** | Push-style approval (RTP variant) | | **Deeplink** | App-to-app payment links (mobile commerce) | **Key benefits of Qvik over card payments** [4][4], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - **No interchange fees** (unlike card networks). - **Instant settlement** (vs 2-day card settlement) — funds in merchant account in under 5 seconds. - **Exempt from Hungarian transaction taxes** — regulatory advantage. - **Built on already-existing AFR infrastructure** — no additional bank cost. **Hungarian IBAN structure** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): ``` HU + 2 check digits + 3-digit bank code + 4-digit branch + 15-digit account + 1 check Example: HU42117730161111101800000000 (28 characters) ``` ## Use cases Qvik's deployment is concentrated on **retail point-of-sale and bill-payment scenarios** in Hungary, with the regulatory framework driving merchant adoption [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU), [4][4]: - **Retail point of sale** — supermarkets, restaurants, kiosks. **20,000+ merchants** by end-2024 (target met). - **Bill payments via HCT QR** — utility companies, telecom, insurance. Pre-printed QR on invoices for one-scan payment. - **E-commerce checkout** — dynamic Qvik QR or Deeplink generated server-side. - **P2P transfers via Qvik QR** — although direct AFR P2P via phone number is more common. - **Request to Pay (RTP)** — biller initiates the payment request; payer approves in their banking app. Useful for invoicing, service-vendor billing. - **POS NFC** — Qvik tap-to-pay at NFC-equipped terminals as a card-alternative. **Why Qvik is structurally attractive to Hungarian merchants** [4][4], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - **Zero transaction fees** vs typical 0.5-2% card interchange. - **Instant settlement** vs 2-day card settlement — better cash flow. - **Tax-exempt** — additional cost advantage. - **Universal Hungarian banking support** — every customer's bank can pay Qvik. **Adoption (early)** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): - **5,000 merchants** at September 2024 launch - **20,000+ merchants** by end-November 2024 - **All Hungarian banks** (mandatory) ## Implementations MNB QR / Qvik integration is **MNB + GIRO-mediated** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): **Production bank apps consuming Qvik** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU): | App | Bank | |---|---| | **OTP Bank HU** | OTP Bank — Hungary's largest (24.30% market share), Europe's top-performing bank 2023 | | **George** | Erste Bank Hungary — same George brand as Erste's Austrian app | | **K&H mobilbank** | K&H Bank (KBC Belgium subsidiary) | | **CIB Bank** | CIB Bank | | **MBH Bank** | MBH Bank (formed from MKB + Budapest Bank + Takarékbank merger) | Plus all other AFR-participating Hungarian banks (mandatory coverage). **Acquirer / merchant onboarding**: - **OTP Bank via SimplePay** — OTP's payment acquirer subsidiary; major Qvik merchant onboarding channel. - **CIB Bank, MBH Bank, Erste, K&H, Raiffeisen** — major banks also operating as merchant acquirers. - **Hungarian fintechs** are progressively integrating Qvik. **Open-source library**: - **PHP** — [hubipe/QrPaymentHU][8] — PHP library for generating Hungarian QR payment codes per MNB standard [8][8]. The primary community open-source implementation. **Reference documentation** [2][2], [9][9]: - [MNB QR Code Guidelines (July 2019)][2] — formal Hungarian QR standard. - [MNB Instant Payments Guidelines][9] — broader AFR documentation. ## Comparison **vs. EU 2024/886 Instant Payments Regulation** — Hungary's MNB-mandated AFR (since March 2020) is structurally **4 years ahead of the EU mandate**. The EU regulation requires banks to **offer** instant payments (mandatory receiving January 2025, sending October 2025); Hungary's MNB went further by **mandating all banks participate in AFR** from day 1 in 2020. **Hungary is the European reference for "regulator-as-instant-payment-catalyst"**. **vs. [BLIK](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/blik) (Poland)** — Both non-eurozone Central European bank-consortium / central-bank-driven national mobile-payment systems. Different design choices: BLIK's primary interaction is a **6-digit code**; Qvik's primary is **QR + NFC + Deeplink**. Both have central-bank involvement (Polish NBP for BLIK rail; Hungarian MNB for AFR + Qvik). Both achieved rapid national adoption [blik-ref], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). **vs. [Swish QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/swish-qr) (Sweden), [TWINT](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/twint) (Switzerland)** — **Direct naming influences for Qvik** — Hungarian MNB explicitly drew inspiration from Swish and TWINT when naming Qvik [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). All three are bank-consortium / central-bank-driven national mobile-payment systems; all three achieved near-universal adoption in their target markets. Different scales (Swedish ~10M population, Swiss ~9M, Hungarian ~9.6M — similar sizes) [[swish-ref], [twint-ref]]. **vs. [Bizum](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/bizum) (Spain) / [MB WAY QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/mb-way-qr) (Portugal)** — Same era of Southern / Central European bank-consortium mobile-payment systems. All built on SCT-Inst-class rails. Bizum and MB WAY are eurozone (EUR); Qvik is non-eurozone (HUF). All achieved national-banking-system universal participation [[bizum-ref], [mb-way-ref]]. **vs. [IRIS QR](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/standards/iris-qr) (Greece)** — Both 2024-era central-bank-driven national QR + instant-payment systems. **Hungary's MNB approach** (mandate AFR participation from 2020) differs from **Greece's IRIS approach** (mandate business *acceptance* with fines). Both are regulator-driven; different lever choices [[iris-ref]]. **vs. card networks (Visa, Mastercard) in Hungary** — Qvik's structural mission is **direct card-alternative**. Zero fees + instant settlement + tax-exempt creates **structural cost advantage** for merchants over card payments. Hungarian banks are expected to pivot promotion toward Qvik (because of MNB regulatory pressure and zero-fee advantage); cards remain dominant for now but Qvik is positioned to grow rapidly. ## Fun facts **Hungary is the only country in the world with mandatory instant-payment-system participation for all banks** [3][3], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU) — MNB's regulatory decision in 2019–2020 to **mandate** AFR participation was structurally different from peer countries' voluntary or partial approaches. By the time the **EU 2024/886 Instant Payments Regulation** caught up in 2025, Hungary had **4+ years of mandatory instant-payment coverage** at the national-banking-system level. **OTP Bank is Europe's top-performing bank (S&P 2023 ranking)** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU) — Hungary's largest bank, with 24.30% domestic market share and HUF 745 billion 2024 net income. OTP's regional expansion across CEE (Central Eastern Europe) makes it a major regional player, and its **dominance of Qvik adoption** (via SimplePay subsidiary) gives it substantial leverage over how Qvik's merchant ecosystem develops. **Qvik's zero-transaction-fee + tax-exemption combination is structurally devastating for card-network economics in Hungary** [4][4], [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU). Card networks make money on **interchange fees** (~0.5–2% of transaction value) plus various scheme fees. Qvik charges zero. Hungarian transaction tax exempts Qvik but applies to other payment methods. The net merchant economics: | Payment method | Per-€100 cost to merchant | Settlement time | |---|---|---| | **Qvik** | **€0** | **<5 seconds** | | Card (typical) | €1–2 (interchange) + scheme fees + acquirer markup | 1–2 days | | Cash | Operational handling cost (insurance, theft, deposit fees) + transaction tax | Same-day deposit | The economics structurally favour Qvik; the question is consumer-adoption velocity, since card-network consumer rewards (cashback, loyalty points) are missing from Qvik. **The "Qvik" name was chosen from 50+ candidates inspired by Swish and TWINT** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU) — MNB deliberately copied the **short, brand-able, phonetically-distinctive** naming pattern of successful peer national mobile-payment systems. "Qvik" works in both Hungarian and international contexts (the "v" + "k" combination is unusual enough to be memorable). **OTP Bank is the only major Hungarian bank with a similar foreign-expansion footprint to the country itself** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU) — OTP operates across Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Ukraine, and other CEE markets. As Qvik scales, **OTP's regional banking infrastructure positions it to extend Qvik-style services across OTP's CEE footprint** — a possible future regional-mobile-payment-platform expansion. **MNB QR's "17 mandatory data fields with LF separators" format** [2][2] is structurally unusual among national QR-payment standards. Most peers use either **EMVCo TLV** (SGQR, DuitNow, etc.) or **URI deep links** (UPI). MNB's choice of a **simple line-feed-delimited text format** prioritises **human readability and parsing simplicity** — a Hungarian developer can read and debug a Qvik QR payload directly with no specialised tooling. ## Status **Active, regulator-driven, rapidly scaling** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU), [4][4]: - **AFR mandatory for all Hungarian banks since 2 March 2020** - **MNB QR Code Guidelines (July 2019)** standardised QR format - **February 2024 mandates**: QR + NFC + Deeplink + RTP for all banks - **Qvik consumer brand launched 1 September 2024** - **5,000 merchants** at launch → **20,000+ by end-2024** - **Zero transaction fees**, **tax-exempt** for merchants - **<5-second settlement** **Strategic trajectory** [Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU), [4][4]: - **Continued Qvik merchant onboarding** through 2025 — OTP via SimplePay is the dominant acquirer. - **Qvik vs card-network competition** is the structural test — can MNB's regulatory + economic advantages drive consumer / merchant migration from cards? - **OTP regional expansion** could extend Qvik-style services across CEE if successful. - **EU 2024/886 Instant Payments Regulation** (mandatory Jan/Oct 2025) — Hungary already complies; the EU is catching up to where Hungary has been since 2020. No deprecation planned. MNB QR / Qvik is strategic Hungarian national payment infrastructure with explicit MNB regulatory backing for the foreseeable future. ## Sources [1]: https://www.europeanpaymentscouncil.eu/news-insights/insight/afr-hungarian-retail-instant-payment-system [2]: https://www.mnb.hu/letoltes/qr-kod-utmutato-20190712-en.pdf [3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Instant_Payment_System [4]: https://dailynewshungary.com/qr-code-payment-system-qvik/ [5]: https://trademagazin.hu/en/uj-qr-kodos-azonnali-fizetesi-megoldas-indul-szeptembertol/ [6]: https://www.paymentscardsandmobile.com/innovation-in-hungarian-instant-payments-with-qvik/ [7]: https://hungarytoday.hu/new-in-store-payment-option-to-offer-retailers-cheaper-digital-solution/ [8]: https://github.com/hubipe/QrPaymentHU [9]: https://www.mnb.hu/en/payments/instantpayments/guidelines [10]: https://www.lightspark.com/knowledge/instant-payments-hungary [hu-cro]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU [blik-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/blik [swish-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/swish-qr [twint-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/twint [bizum-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/bizum [mb-way-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/mb-way-qr [iris-ref]: https://docs.barcoder.ai/source/standards/iris-qr 1. [AFR Hungarian Retail Instant Payment System — EPC][1] 2. [MNB QR Code Guidelines (July 2019)][2] 3. [Hungarian Instant Payment System — Wikipedia][3] 4. [Qvik launch — Daily News Hungary][4] 5. [Qvik September 2024 — Trade Magazin][5] 6. [Qvik innovation — Payments Cards Mobile][6] 7. [Qvik retailer solution — Hungary Today][7] 8. [hubipe/QrPaymentHU — GitHub][8] 9. [MNB Instant Payments Guidelines][9] 10. [Instant Payments Hungary — Lightspark][10] 11. [HU-hungary.md][Hungary report](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU) ## Deployments Found in the following country reports (grep across `reports/countries/`): - **FI** — [FI-finland.md](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/FI) - **HU** — [HU-hungary.md](https://docs.barcoder.ai/docs/payments/HU)