Central Bank Official: Laws on FX loan Remedies Not to Cost More Than HUF 900bn

(MTI) – Provisions in laws for remedying the situation of troubled borrowers who took out loans in foreign currency are not likely to cost Hungary’s banks more than 900 billion forints (EUR 2.9bn), a central bank official said on Wednesday.

Laszlo Windisch, deputy governor of the National Bank of Hungary, commenting on new guidelines promulgated by the bank on Tuesday, said the new calculation took into account the way in which the elimination of the exchange-rate margin would be implemented.

Sandor Csanyi, chairman and chief executive of OTP Bank, Hungary’s largest retail lender, said the new guidelines meant that at least a third of the Hungarian banking sector’s capital would be sucked away as a result of the package, and this would be seriously damaging to the economy. He noted too that OTP would prove before the law courts that it had acted lawfully and in good faith in connection with forex loan products.

In an interview to vg.hu, he added that the bank’s information to customers had been correct and he trusted that the courts would recognise that.

He said the central bank’s calculations in its guidelines on the exchange-rate margin were “surprising”.

Photo: viszavzsodor.blogspot.com

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters