Hungary's banks call for level playing field under new government

Erste Bank AG

05/05/2026 10:17

BUDAPEST, May 5 (Reuters) - Hungary's banks are hoping for a more level playing field, greater predictability and a market-friendly shift under incoming Prime Minister Peter Magyar after years of unpredictable policies from outgoing leader Viktor Orban.

Centre-right leader Magyar won an April 12 election landslide, ending Orban's 16 years of power marked by ad hoc policies, special taxes and other measures that hit banks as the government sought to shore up public finances.

Policy unpredictability and a lack of European Union funding - with billions of euros suspended over reforms that Brussels said undermined democracy - have weighed on investment and the economy, Banking Association Chairman Radovan Jelasity said.

"How do you rebuild confidence? This will definitely be a long process," Jelasity, a former governor of the National Bank of Serbia, told a business conference organised by financial news website portfolio.hu on Tuesday.

"What the banking sector definitely wants are the following: there should be much-much more market (focus), and for once let us put this tilted playing field behind us ... and get rid of the fine-tuning."

Hungary's main banks include OTP OTPB.BU, MBH Bank MBHB.BU, KBC KBC.BR, UniCredit CRDI.MI, Intesa SanPaolo ISP.MI, Erste Bank ERST.VI and Raiffeisen RBIV.VI.

REVIVING THE ECONOMY

Jelasity told an audience of senior bankers and business leaders that Orban's policies had for years favoured selected entities, without elaborating.

Magyar campaigned on a pro-European agenda aimed at securing the release of suspended EU funds to kick-start Hungary's economy, which was near stagnation for three years before a larger-than-expected 1.7% annual expansion in the first quarter.

"It is very important that the protagonists of the economy shift into a higher gear," said Jelasity, the head of Erste Group's ERST.VI Hungarian unit.

"The shadow (of past policies) is large and long, therefore it is important that the economy is retuned as soon as possible."

 (Reporting by Gergely Szakacs. Editing by Mark Potter)

 ((gergely.szakacs@thomsonreuters.com ; https://x.com/szakacsg ; https://www.reuters.com/authors/gergely-szakacs/))