Hungarian State Treasury

The Hungarian State Treasury (Magyar Államkincstár, Ungarisches Schatzamt, Trésor Public de la Hongrie) is a central budgetary institution with independent legal personality, national competence, and autonomous operation and management, and is under the professional, legal and budgetary governance of the minister responsible for public finances.

During the state budget implementation, the Treasury is responsible for the handling of payments and for clearings, for the forecast of the budgetary position and the management of liquidity, as well as for specific reportings. It keeps records of State guarantees and counter-guarantees. The institution performs the payroll accounting of approximately nine hundred thousand people employed in the public sector, as well as the related tax and contributions accounting and declaration. Based on the instruments of incorporation, it keeps records in the register of budgetary institutions, similarly to the company register. It provides support from the central government budget to local governments, local authority associations and healthcare institutions on a net basis, and monitors the use of said support. The Treasury performs independent financial compliance audits based on sampling – taking risk assessment as a basis – in local governments, nationality self-governments, associations, regional development councils and the budgetary institutions they control. It accepts and collates budget implementation reports. It disburses and controls European Union and domestic grants, and reclaims unduly granted support. The institution performs the contributing organisational tasks of the Spatial and Urban Development Operational Programme (Terület- és Településfejlesztési Operatív Program). It manages the accounts of Treasury participants and payment account holders, carries out the financial tasks related to the allocation of expenditure and the collection of revenue, and performs liquidity and appropriation coverage verifications concerning expenditure. It provides securities distribution and related account management services to clients in treasury offices located in county seats.

Zsolt Tavaszi

Vice-President for Public Finance and Payment Services

The Hungarian State Treasury became the main institution of budget implementation with the establishment of the modern treasury system 25 years ago. The budgetary institution accounts previously held in several places were uniformly incorporated in the account management of the Treasury, and the Treasury Single Account (Kincstári Egységes Számla, i.e. ‘KESZ’) held with the central bank was established. Thus, from that moment on, the liquidity of the budget is ensured uniformly and centrally.

Since its establishment, the Treasury keeps records of the appropriations of the participants of the central subsystem of public finances (budgetary authorities, appropriations managed at central and budgetary chapter level, social security funds and ring-fenced state funds), manages their payment accounts, and handles payments based on the orders of budgetary entities.

As a payment service provider, the Treasury manages accounts not only for budgetary clients but for the continuously expanding entities not operating under the budgetary principles, as specified in the Act on Public Finances.  An important milestone in the modernisation of our payment services in 2021 is the launch in several stages of our new multi-currency account management system by which we can provide services to our clients whose accounts we manage that meet today's expectations (full connection to an instant payment system, online front-end user interface, intraday clearing of direct debit orders), and introduce new services in accordance with the strategic plans. 

Simultaneously with the introduction of the new account management system for the entire clientele, in 2022, we launched the Central Budget Implementation Support System as a result of the modernisation of processes and information technology solutions related to the implementation of the central budget, which serves as a tool for the execution and control of the Treasury management of the budgetary authorities and appropriations belonging to the central subsystem of public finances. In this System, budget appropriations and commitments are recorded, and payment transactions related to the use of appropriations are checked in accordance with different budgetary aspects, which guarantee the implementation of the central budget in compliance with legal requirements.

The Treasury continuously provides information on the implementation of the budget to the government and decision-makers, especially to the Ministry of Finance. It maintains a public register of the legal persons in the general government sector, and accepts the accounting and budget reports of entities operating under the budgetary principles in an electronic data collection system.

Over the past decades, the Treasury has also been tasked with the activities of net financing and public debt haircut, by which the Treasury contributes significantly to the collection of budget revenues.

Throughout the past decades, the Treasury has played a significant role on the retail government securities market, the number of clients has increased tenfold, and is already close to 650 000 people. Retaining this decisive role and market share was, of course, only possible because the Treasury continuously followed, and even stood directly at the forefront of developments in the government securities market. The range of products and services has been significantly transformed and expanded, tied agents and subcontractors are also involved in sales in order to reach the widest possible range of potential clients, and we also lead in the use of digitisation channels.

One third of our clients opened their securities registration accounts through Client Gate (Ügyfélkapu), without personal appearance, and on the other hand, the rate of sales realised through the WebTreasury (WebKincstár) and the MobileTreasury (MobilKincstár) apps exceeded 60 % with regard to the transactions carried out. With this performance, the Treasury is the market leader in the field of government securities distribution, and is clearly ahead of the banking sector in the modernisation and digitisation of investment services.

Within the framework of our social responsibility mission, we strive to improve the public's financial awareness; for example, we have developed an educational mobile application and organised many events for students.

Attila Labancz

Vice-President for Retail Services

The retail service area of the Hungarian State Treasury was created through the integration of several sectors and organisations. Currently, the organisation includes the domains of pension insurance and payment, support to families and the health insurance cash benefit, which involve several organisational units providing professional support.  

On 1 January 2001, the determination and payment tasks related to support to families were given to the predecessor of the Hungarian State Treasury named the Public Finance Office (Államháztartási Hivatal) and its county directorates. At organisational level, from 1 January 2015 to 31 October 2017, the domain belonged to the National Directorate-General for Pension Insurance (Országos Nyugdíjbiztosítási Főigazgatóság, i.e. ‘ONYF’), and from 1 November 2017, with the integration of the ONYF into the Treasury, it became the responsibility of the Hungarian State Treasury again. The tasks of the domain include the family allowance, the child care allowance, the child raising support, the maternity allowance and the disability benefit, to which the official tasks related to the start-of-life allowance for young people were added in 2006. As of July 2017, this is the domain that assesses the applications arriving from all around the world, as part of the ‘Umbilical Cord’ (Köldökzsinór) programme.

At organisational level, the domain of health insurance cash benefit belonged to the National Health Insurance Fund until 31 December 2016, then it was the responsibility of the ONYF from 1 January 2017 to 31 October 2017, and finally it was transferred to the Hungarian State Treasury on 1 November 2017. This domain includes the sickness benefit, the infant care fee, the child care fee, the adoption fee, the accident sickness benefit and the travel reimbursements. The health insurance cash benefits were first expanded on 1 January 2014 with the introduction of the child care fee for students in tertiary education, then from 1 January 2020, the available types of child care fee were further expanded with the benefits called ‘child care fee for grandparents’ and the ‘child care fee for foster parents’, and at the same time, the institution of the adoption fee was introduced.

In the area of pension insurance, as of 1 November 2017, the Treasury's traditional activities were expanded to include the management of the Pension Insurance Fund and the related planning, management, reporting and data provision tasks. From this date, as a result of the integration of the previously independent ONYF and the Pension Payment Directorate, the tasks of the central pension insurance body have also been performed by the Treasury. Its main task as the central pension insurance body is the operation of the pension insurance registers as well as the operation and development of the information technology systems of the pension determination bodies and the specialised payment systems, and of the services related to the enforcement of law by authorities. With the ONYF merging into the Hungarian State Treasury, the Pension Payment Directorate was also transferred to the Treasury, the task performance of which is very diverse and varies widely: it includes the payment of pension benefits and pension-like benefits, the organisation of the payment and administration tasks for said benefits, and the payment of other social security benefits.

The activities of the Pension Payment Directorate were continuously expanded with new tasks: Between 2008 and 2011, it took over the pension payment tasks of MÁV Zrt. and GYSEV Zrt., and the payment of the benefits disbursed by the Public Foundation of Hungarian Creative Artists (Magyar Alkotóművészek Közalapítványa). The Directorate received the tasks related to support to families in 2017, and in 2018, the tasks concerning the payment of health insurance cash benefits, and the support for the fee of the first successful language exam and the first advanced level secondary school leaving exam in a foreign language, as well as the assessment and payment of support granted for the fee of the course and exam in the basics of traffic were transferred to it, and in 2019, the task of payment of the grant for the purchase of a car for large families was also given to the Directorate. In 2021, these duties were further expanded with the assessment and payment of the home renovation grant for families raising a child/children, and the tasks related to the tax refund support for the purchase of flats in residential realty built in rust belt action areas.

Gabriella Zsolnai

Vice-President for Network Management

The organisational structure of the Treasury consists of one central and 19 territorial institutions, and the territorial institutions are the county directorates operating in the county seats. These local organisations have extensive connections to institutions and the public.

The county directorates are closely linked to local governments. Some of the most important elements of this work are the maintenance of connection between the central budget and the local government subsystem, the application for, financing of, accounting for, reviewing of local government grants, and tasks related to local taxation and software connections. The county organisations also carry out tasks related to the funding provided from the central budget, which concerns nationality self-government, ecclesiastical and non-state, non-municipality parties.

Furthermore, they take part in the management of various financial services for Treasury participants and payment account holders. They manage the accounts of their clients, provide investment services, and participate in the financial tasks related to grant applications.

In the past, the county directorates also carried out the payroll accounting tasks, but in 2022, the organisation was transformed, and from that time on, the task has been performed in a centralised way, but – in terms of location – in the buildings of the county directorates.

In addition to the management of the county directorates, Network Management is responsible for the management of the following professional tasks: payroll accounting; the operation and improvement of the Municipality ASP system; the financial compliance audit of the organisations belonging to the local government subsystem; the financing of the local government subsystem and nationality self-government, ecclesiastical and non-state, non-municipality parties, and monitoring the use of grants and support.

Centralised payroll accounting

One of the priority tasks of the Hungarian State Treasury is payroll accounting, which goes back 60 years and was centralised 19 years ago. With the help of a European Union tender, the Treasury – with own development – designed a centralised payroll accounting system (‘KIRA’) based on a modern and secure infrastructure, which is unique in Europe. KIRA is a system performing the payroll accounting task for the employees of all public sector participants.

Currently, centralised payroll accounting is carried out for the employees of approximately 600 central budgetary institutions, 9 000 local government budgetary institutions, more than 2 000 nationality self-governments and their institutions, and on the basis of separate agreements, for the employees of 280 non-profit and ecclesiastical institutions. Overall, this means the payroll accounting of the individual entitlements of about 900 000 people.

Supporting local governments in their tasks – the Municipality ASP system

The new ASP technology brought about a significant technical and structural change in the local government subsystem that is unique in public administration. With the continuous development of the service, we create new integration points, thus further simplifying the administrative processes of local governments and citizens. Since 2015, this domain has provided the operational tasks of the Municipal ASP system, which serves 30 000 users per day, handles an average of around 23 000 notifications per year, and ensures training. The Local Government Repository (Önkormányzati Adattárház) functions as an element of the ASP system, which provides transparency by storing depersonalised data and provides an opportunity to analyse economic processes for the ministries and organisations supervising the local government subsystem.

Financial compliance audit of the organisations belonging to the local government subsystem

As of 2015, the Treasury performs the financial compliance audit of the organisations belonging to the local government subsystem in accordance with European Union standards in order to confirm that the data in the annual financial statements of those subject to the audit are genuine and reliable.

Financing and review tasks regarding local governments

The local government domain coordinates the financing of the grants necessary for the performance of the public tasks of local governments as well as the audits specified in the Act on Public Finances regarding the use of said grants. County directorates perform the preliminary and subsequent audit of the grants – specified in Chapter IX – requested and recognised by local governments and received from the central budget, including on the site. From 1 January 2012, local governments can also submit their applications related to debt-generating transactions through the Treasury.

Financing tasks regarding parent agencies of ecclesiastical and non-state human service institutions

The Treasury is also responsible for the management of the financing tasks of parent agencies of nationality self-government, ecclesiastical and non-state, non-municipality human service institutions. For all parent agencies, on-site audits must be conducted at least every two years in the social field, and every four years in the field of public education. The Treasury Centre acts as the authority of second instance in matters related to grants.

Miklós Detre

Vice-President for Support for Agricultural and Rural Development

By joining the European Union in 2004, our country became part of the European Union’s common agricultural policy (‘CAP’), which opened up significant sources of support for agricultural and rural development purposes. The institution created to implement this was the Office for Agriculture and Rural Development (Mezőgazdasági és Vidékfejlesztési Hivatal, i.e. ‘MVH’), which started its operation as Paying Agency (Kifizető Ügynökség) on 1 July 2003 as the general legal successor of the SAPARD Office and the Centre for Agricultural Intervention (Agrárintervenciós Központ). The MVH ceased to exist on 31 December 2016, and the Hungarian State Treasury took over its tasks as the general legal successor.

The Paying Agency is an accredited institution responsible for the receipt, control and assessment of applications for both pillars of EU funds (EAGF, EAFRD) within the framework of the CAP, and applications for sectoral support funded from related additional national resources, as well as for the disbursement of said support, the auditing of their use, and the operation of market-regulating measures.

From the very beginning, EU regulations require the operation of specialised IT systems and databases related to support procedures. Except for a few special measures, full electronic and mass administration is ensured during agricultural support procedures, and most of the managed support measures have automated controls incorporated in the software.

The modern, customer-friendly approach of the 21st century requires continuous development and modernisation: we are constantly developing both IT systems and procedures in order to ensure that – in the rapidly changing legal environment – support payments are made as quickly as possible and in larger amounts to eligible farmers. We also continuously integrate the applicable achievements of modern technology (satellite image analysis, mobile application) into the support management processes.

Dr Zsuzsanna Budainé Kovács

Vice-President for Information Technology

The performance of Treasury tasks are interwoven by information technology like a spider's web. Currently, 500 people work in this domain, who are the employees of the Treasury and KINCSINFO Nonprofit Kft., which provides part of the IT services. Carrying out professional tasks and communicating with clients is now unimaginable without information technology. There is no person in Hungary today who is not involved in the use of at least one application, whether it is the system for the support to families or the systems related to pension and pension-like benefits, securities distribution, support for rural development, employment policy support or payroll accounting. Following the rapidly changing technological development, the IT applications used at the Treasury have undergone spectacular and significant changes in the last twenty-five years. Today, interactive, user-friendly programs support administration instead of previous batch processing based on data recording.  Centralised national databases that communicate with each other and with the systems of partner institutions ensure efficiency, consistency and appropriate control. From the beginning of the Treasury's operation, the Department for the Support of Payment Applications and its legal predecessors have been carrying out extremely important development and operational tasks that ensure the management of the accounts of Treasury clients, the safe handling of their payments, the performance of public finance and budgetary tasks, while meeting expectations, as well as keeping up with the continuous modernisation efforts affecting the banking sector. In 2017, as a result of legislative amendment, the National Directorate-General for Pension Insurance and the Office for Agriculture and Rural Development joined the Treasury in its task performance, bringing along their IT infrastructure and application systems that already existed or were under development. With this merger, both the IT-related tasks and the IT and information security responsibilities of the Treasury increased significantly.