Lajos Bartha
Executive Director responsible for payments, cash logistics, and banking operations., National Bank of Hungary
He earned an economist degree from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences. He began his career as an auditor, then worked at Állami Vagyonkezelő Rt. as a portfolio manager and later as deputy managing director. From 1996 he headed the foreign exchange transactions department at Pénzintézeti Központ Bank, followed in 1998 by a position as head of department in the payments area at the National Bank of Hungary (MNB).
From 2005 he worked at the European Central Bank’s payment systems unit as a senior payment systems expert, assessing payment and securities settlement systems operating in the euro area and dealing with payment-related issues in the accession processes of Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. Since November 2007 he has been Head of the MNB’s payments and securities settlement area. From 2010 he has chaired the national project steering committee coordinating the introduction of intraday credit transfers.
The area he leads is responsible, among other things, for regulating and supervising the execution of payments, overseeing payment and securities settlement systems, and coordinating the development of these systems and of the payments infrastructure. He represents Hungary on the European Central Bank committee dealing with payment issues. He is also a member of the supervisory boards of KELER Zrt., BÉT Zrt. and GIRO Zrt.