Hungary’s National Bank to file criminal report against opposition politician

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) will file a criminal report over remarks by opposition Democratic Coalition co-leader László Varju, the central bank said on Friday.

The bank said in a statement that at a press conference earlier on Friday, Varju had “intentionally misinterpreted” central bank governor György Matolcsy’s presentation at a recent meeting of parliament’s economic committee. Varju’s “false claims endanger public trust in financial stability”, the statement said.

The central bank will take legal action and firmly calls on DK to retract those “irresponsible statements made for political profiteering, and refrain from spreading fake news in future”, it said.

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The bank cited a stability report it published in late November showing that the Hungarian banking system has robust capital reserves and operates with considerable liquid assets. NBH calculations and stress test data show that banks’ shock resilience is excellent and they are in significantly better condition that at the time of the 2008 crisis, it added.

“These are the bare facts and everything else is intentional dissemination of misleading information and fake news,” NBH said.

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Source: MTI