New Hungarian PSP

A major Czech bank initiated a €25-30 million strategic program to establish a new, fully licensed Payment Service Provider (PSP) subsidiary in Hungary. This complex initiative involved a “carve-out” acquisition of a sister bank’s merchant acquiring business, the migration of 15,000 clients, and the establishment of a new legal entity. Acting as the CEO of the new subsidiary, our leadership successfully navigated immense regulatory, logistical, and operational challenges—including the COVID-19 pandemic—to launch the entity, ensure business continuity, and build a “mature scale-up” poised for international expansion.

The Challenge

The bank’s objective was to create a new, independent player in the Hungarian payments market. This required overcoming several significant, overlapping hurdles:

• Regulatory Complexity: Securing all necessary Hungarian regulatory and global card association (e.g., Visa, Mastercard) licenses from scratch—a high-stakes, time-intensive process.
• Complex M&A & Integration: Managing the legal and operational purchase of an existing acquiring business from a sister bank, including the transfer of all assets, contracts, and employees.
• Large-Scale Client Migration: Seamlessly migrating a portfolio of 15,000 merchants to the new entity’s systems and legal framework, with a critical need to prevent service disruption and client churn.
• Global Disruption: Executing the entire program during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic (2019-2022), which created unprecedented operational and logistical challenges.

Our Role & Solution

Appointed as the CEO of the new Hungarian subsidiary, our role was to provide end-to-end executive leadership for the entire program. This encompassed:

• Unified Program Leadership: Acting as the central leader for the multi-year program, bridging the gap between Hungarian and Czech executive management and ensuring strategic alignment.
• Regulatory & Legal Navigation: Spearheading the complex licensing application process with all relevant authorities and governing the creation of the new legal entity.
• Operational & Migration Oversight: Directing the highly sensitive, multi-stage migration of 15,000 clients, balancing technical integration with clear customer communication.
• Organizational Transformation: Managing the integration of 21 incumbent employees and scaling the organization by hiring new talent, effectively transforming the new company’s culture and capabilities.

Key Achievements & Results

Despite significant headwinds, the program was a success, establishing a robust and scalable new business.

1. Successful Licensing & Launch During Crisis Successfully obtained all critical regulatory and card association licenses within 18 months (2019-2020). This aggressive timeline was met despite the severe operational disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Exceptional Client & Business Continuity The complex, multi-year migration of approximately 15,000 merchants (2021-2022) was completed with an unwanted client churn rate of around 2%. This exceptionally low figure underscores the success of the migration strategy and customer retention efforts.

3. Transformed into a “Mature Scale-Up” The organization was successfully built out, growing from an incumbent team of 21 employees to a fully-fledged, high-performing staff of 57. This transformed the company from a simple business unit into a mature, scalable entity.

4. Enabled International Expansion The new entity was built with a forward-looking structure. We successfully implemented cross-border operations, enabling the company’s acquiring business to expand its services into four new international markets: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, and Croatia.