Could the emerging Hungarian superbank conquer the financial market?

The plan that has been rumoured since 2013 will come to fruition when three market-leading Hungarian banks will merge into a single holding company, creating a new superbank. They plan to enter the domestic and regional markets in the following years.

The rivals

The current largest Hungarian bank is OTP, led by Sándor Csányi for decades now. Csányi is the president of the Hungarian Football Association, and he is known for being the vice-president of FIFA as well.

Csányi spent many years being on top as the richest businessman of Hungary, until a close friend of Viktor Orbán, Lőrinc Mészáros, preceded him just last year.

Curiously, Mészáros seems to be interested in the superbank.

The merger of three existing banks

Based on the plans of Magyar Bankholding, the establishment of the superbank will be implemented in two stages. Budapest Bank and MKB will be the first to merge as MKB Bank.

On December 15, Magyar Takarék Bank Holding Zrt., which owns MKB Bank, Budapest Bank, and Takarék Group, approved the first step in the merger, says Forbes.hu.

Takarék Group will join the merger later, by the end of the second quarter of 2023.

The first merged bank, which will be established on March 31, 2022, will temporarily operate under the name MKB Bank. However, the brand name, logo, brand values, and other image elements of the emerging large bank are still being developed. The introduction of a unified financial institution brand is planned to take place in early 2023, says Portfolio.hu

With the merger of the three financial institutions in 2023, Hungary’s second-largest commercial bank will be established. By then, it will be able to carry out acquisitions in Hungary and abroad, and in time, it may appear in other countries in the region.

The management also aims to expand the banking group’s presence on the stock exchange, relying on MKB Bank’s existing capital market experience.

The merger does not mean a change in the ownership structure of the banking group, Magyar Bankholding Zrt. will continue to be the dominant owner of the banks participating in the merger.