2 December 2024
The Student Safe mobile app, which has played a pioneering role in domestic central bank digital currency (CBDC) research in the recent years, will be phased out soon. The project has not only achieved results in raising financial awareness among the young, but by providing useful practical experience to the wider central banking community has also brought the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB) to the international forefront of CBDC research.
The Student Safe initiative was the first CBDC pilot project in the European Union to be made available to retail users. The project set the direction for the future of money in a unique way, involving real users, in close cooperation with domestic FinTech companies and commercial banks, without compromising their business objectives. As a free and secure financial mobile app, Student Safe helped primary school-age children to familiarise themselves with real money, digital payments and savings in a modern digital environment and under parental supervision, while at the same time also developing the financial awareness of the young generation in a playful way.
The mobile app, created with unprecedented speed within the existing legal framework, using agile development approach, enabled the MNB to gain hands-on experience of a possible way to develop and operate a retail CBDC system, in real-life conditions, involving a focused user community, and taking customer needs fully into account. The developed mobile app functions and back-end processes covered all aspects of CBDC issuance and redemption, including the deployment of IT systems, management of direct customer relationships – a novelty in central banking operations – as well as fraud prevention, and opened new dimensions in how the central bank could cooperate with market participants.
During its one-and-a-half years of operation, the Student Safe programme has met the objectives set by the central bank. While the closure of the programme marks the end of an important chapter, the achievements and lessons learned will live on: the experience and competences gained during the pilot project will not only be useful for the MNB’s future digital developments, but will also serve as a valuable example for the international central banking community, shaping the future of money.
The MNB’s experts presented the project at international conferences and central bank forums and reported on the experience gained so far. In addition to the high level of interest shown by professionals, the app has also received recognition from the domestic and international community, winning, together with its cooperating banking partners, a special award in the ‘Financial Solution of the Year for Young People’ category in the Mastercard ‘Bank of the Year’ competition in 2023. This autumn the app also won the ‘CBDC Initiative Award for 2024’, a recognition for outstanding innovation and achievements in the development of CBDC within the global central banking community.
We would like to thank all the students, parents and our partners, including the Money Compass Foundation, Raiffeisen Bank and OTP’s SimplePay team, for being part of this pioneering initiative! Without their cooperation, Student Safe could not have been a success.
We have informed our users electronically about the tasks and important deadlines related to the closure of the Student Safe app. Details of the closure are also available at the diakszef.hu site.