In March 2025, the Hungarian Government decided to significantly strengthen Hungarian citizens’ right to use cash. In this context, the Fundamental Law has been amended, so that the possibility to pay in cash will become a fundamental right. According to the explanatory memorandum, this is necessary to avoid the economy becoming completely vulnerable to electronic financial systems.
In addition, the Government has taken several decisions to promote and preserve cash payments. In this context, the Minister of National Economy has to prepare a plan for the deployment of new automated teller machines (‘ATM’) by 30 April. The Government intends to make it compulsory for financial institutions to have an ATM in each municipality. There are also rumors that several institutions could jointly operate an ATM to reduce costs.
To complement this decision, a further government decree was issued preventing the discontinuation of the operation of existing ATMs. The only exception to this is if the machine should be replaced due to a fault. The Hungarian National Bank may impose fines of between HUF 2 million and HUF 200 million for breaching this provision.
As a basis for the decision, the Government argues that cash use is also increasingly present in smaller villages, but cash withdrawal facilities are much more limited. Opponents of the proposal point out that maintaining ATMs will impose additional costs on banks that will be passed on to customers, and there is no data available on small towns suggesting that the ATMs to be removed are used.
By Bálint Éberhardt, Attorney at Law, KCG Partners Law Firm
