PM Orban: Banks to Repay Debtors 1,000 bn Forints

Budapest, November 14 (MTI) – Under Hungary’s new laws concerning loan agreements banks will reimburse their borrowers for a total 1,000 billion forints, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Orban said that the goal of “redirecting” that amount from the banks to their clients will be met through the settlement law rather than through converting forex loans to forint-based ones.

The prime minister voiced satisfaction that the government had met its goals of reducing the monthly instalments of troubled borrowers as well as ensuring that people who had forint-based loans are not worse off than forex debtors. He suggested that the government would ensure that debtors are no longer treated unfairly by banks and said that the new regulations would “kill usurious practices”. “No one must be left by the road”, Orban said, adding that the government would leave the National Asset Manager and its programmes to help troubled borrowers in place.

In response to a question concerning the mandatory nature of converting forex loans to forint-based ones, Orban said the measure was designed to “eliminate a temptation” for people to take out foreign currency denominated loans unless they have the necessary coverage such as an income in a foreign currency.

Orban also said that the government was in talks aimed at purchasing foreign-owned banks, and said that the government’s pledge to raise Hungarian ownership in the country’s banks over 50 percent could be overfulfilled. “We could easily reach 60 percent or more,” he said, adding that “We need to buy some banks” and make them available to Hungarian owners.