Hungarian Banking System Able to Boost Lending

Hungary's banking system is capable of boosting its lending to HUF 40,000 billion, National Bank of Hungary (NBH) governor Mihály Varga said at a conference organized by business news portal Portfolio on Tuesday.

Local banks' liquidity position is stable and their lending capacity is sufficient, Varga told the conference on lending.

The latest data from the NBH show Hungarian banks' corporate lending stock stood at HUF 15,256 billion at the end of February, while the retail loan book reached HUF 13,024 billion.

Varga noted that the stock of private sector loans in Hungary stood at the equivalent of 30% of GDP at end-2025, under the 47% average for the region and the 73% rate for the whole European Union. Hungarian companies are leveraged at about the same rate as their peers in the region, he added.

Varga pointed to a high financing need across all sectors of the economy and called for targeted corporate lending programs.

He acknowledged the impact of the Iranian war on the inflation outlook, but said the stronger forint and capped motor fuel prices had a mitigating effect. He added that the new government's economic policy measures could also affect price developments.

Varga said banking fees in Hungary had tripled since 2008 as lenders passed on the transaction duty to clients and pegged fee increases to inflation. He added that electronic payment volume had also tripled over the past ten years.

Varga welcomed the impact on competition of the arrival of fintech newcomers to the local banking market.