BUDAPEST--Hungary has no interest in establishing a large
presence in the banking sector, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said
Friday, a day after the economy minister said state owned
development bank MFB will buy GE Capital's Budapest bank for an
undisclosed sum.
The purchase of the unit will take the state's total stake in
the banking sector well above 50%. Earlier this year, Germany's
state-controlled lender BayernLB sold its Hungarian unit MKB Bank
Zrt for 55 million euros ($67.84 million).
But Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday told state radio that
his government isn't to build a banking "mammoth."
"The question now is for how long we will keep it [Budapest
Bank] in state ownership, whether we'll merge it, [or] if we make
it private, what technique we'll use to do that," Mr. Orban said.
"The government's goal is not building an enormous [banking]
mammoth with a majority state ownership but establishing a banking
system belonging to Hungarian interest sphere, Hungarian
owners."
The majority of retail banks operating in Hungary are owned by
foreign companies, but central bank officials have said they expect
the banking sector to consolidate after some of the current owners
exit the country as a result of grave losses over the past few
years and banking sector regulations.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@wsj.com
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires