Hungary’s largest commercial bank, OTP, has set a transaction limit of HUF 1 million (€2,500) due to rising cases of bank fraud, the bank notified its customers on Thursday.
Last year, there were 18,296 successful fraudulent attempts in electronic payments, but altogether 60,509 attempts were made by fraudsters, according to the Hungarian National Bank (MNB). Victims were damaged by an annual total of HUF 23.2 billion (€58.6 million) last year.
The Hungarian Banking Association has already called attention to the importance of setting a daily limit because, in 2023, 85 percent of fraudulent transactions were over one million forints.
OTP Bank was one of the first to act. From May 8, the bank will automatically set a daily transfer limit of HUF 1 million for transfers made online. According to the information, customers can change the set limit at any time or even temporarily suspend it in OTP MobilBank. The limit will be set for customers who have a digital contract, while others can still change the daily limit in the branches.
Among other banks, MBH allows customers to decide whether they want to limit the amount of money in their bank account by setting a limit. At UniCredit Bank, the default transaction limit is HUF 200,000 but customers can set their own limit according to their banking habits. At Erste Bank, the daily transfer limit of HUF 50 million as advertised is set by default, but the bank has reminded customers that it is worth lowering this amount.
