Opposition urges full compensation in Buda-Cash case

Budapest, March 2 (MTI) – The Socialist opposition has called on the government and the central bank to compensate clients who have lost money due to Buda-Cash brokerage debacle without delay. Some 100 billion forints (EUR 329m) has gone missing from the firm.

The Socialist Party’s deputy leader Csaba Toth said the government and the central bank should stop trying to pass on the blame for the suspected embezzlement and offer an apology and full compensation to clients instead.

The case is “the country’s largest banking and brokerage scandal,”  he told a press conference on Monday. It damages many private individuals and civil organisations, as well as more than 80 local councils and thousands of small businesses.

He said the government had communicated that the responsible party must be found. “But the truth is that it is solely responsible,” Toth said, adding that over the past five years the financial watchdog and the central bank had ample opportunity to prevent the Buda-Cash scandal.

The opposition LMP party said central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy should resign over the scandal and financial regulations should be tightened. Erzsebet Schmuck, a party lawmaker, told a press conference on Monday that the central bank and the government should compensate clients within the confines of the law. They should also enact legislation which would prevent anyone from “playing the stock market” with the funds of small investors.