Hungarian banks will be required to cut the time it takes to make domestic payments from one day to four hours by 2012, a central bank decree issued on Wednesday has stipulated. The decree will come into force on 1 July 2012 and will only affect domestic forint transfers made within the country.

At present, Hungarian banks must complete domestic paperless forint transfers with next day settlement, so long as the sender initiates the order before the initiating bank's cut-off time and the