S&P: Hungarian OTP Bank is Europe’s best-performing

According to the latest ranking of S&P Global Market Intelligence, the Hungarian OTP Bank became Europe’s best-performing bank in 2023.

S&P shared its latest ranking a few days ago, saying that the Hungarian bank became Europe’s best because of the strong credit spreads thanks to the higher interest rates. Poland’s PKO Bank Polski and Bank Polska Opieki finished in the second and third positions. Those are Poland’s biggest banks.

The S&P Global Market Intelligence ranked Europe’s 50 biggest banks present on the stock market.

Uzbekh bank by Hungarian OTP Bank. Source: Daily NeWs Hungary

Banks profited from the higher national bank interest rates introduced because of the high European inflation in 2023. For example, the base rate in Hungary was 13% in 2023, while in Poland, 6.75%, portfolio.hu wrote. Thus, we may say that OTP performed well, but the Hungarian economy and crediting froze in 2023, which was bad news for investments and most citizens.

National Bank of Hungary issues instructions to prevent online personal loans fraud

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) has issued an executive circular instructing banks on measures to prevent fraudsters from taking out personal loans with stolen information, the central bank and financial market regulator said on Thursday.

Photo: FB/MNB

The NBH instructed banks to allow clients to prohibit any online or mobile applications in their name for personal loans. It also told lenders to put safeguards in place against illicit personal loan applications.

The NBH pointed to cases of fraudsters using information stolen through online scams to take out personal loans as well as targeting victims’ bank accounts.

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