By Margit Feher
BUDAPEST--Most of Hungary's largest retail banks welcomed Monday
the plan announced by the central bank last week to promote growth
by boosting lending to small and medium-sized enterprises, the
National Bank of Hungary said.
Top executives from various retail banks and the leadership of
the central bank agreed at a meeting Monday to hold regular
sessions in the future to iron out the details of the central
bank's growth program, the central bank said in a statement.
Business breakfasts would become regular between the top
executives of the retail banks and central bank, the participants
also agreed, the central bank added.
The list of banks and executives present at Monday's meeting
issued by the central bank showed that Hungary's second-largest
bank, Erste Bank Zrt., and fourth-largest bank, MKB Zrt., weren't
present. Erste is a unit of Erste Group Bank AG (EBS.VI) of
Austria, and MKB is a unit of Germany's Bayerische Landesbank
AG.
The central bank declined to comment.
It said it wishes to continue its talks with retail banks about
its "Funding for Growth" program, which it planned to base on the
Bank of England's "Funding for Lending" program.
It also plans to consult next with specialized financial
institutions and savings cooperatives, it said.
Under its growth plan, the central bank plans to offer
zero-interest funds, equivalent to less than 1% of gross domestic
product, to boost lending to SMEs, while using less than 10% of the
country's foreign-currency reserves to help SMEs and retail
banks.
The central bank predicts that the measures could boost economic
growth by about 0.3 percentage point this year. Retail banks would
channel the zero-interest funds to firms, but wouldn't be allowed
to charge more than 2% interest on the central bank funds. As part
of the program, they would also participate in converting the SMEs'
foreign-exchange loans into forints.
Top executives present at Monday's meeting represented the
following banks: OTP Bank Nyrt. (OTP.BU); OTP Mortgage Bank Zrt., a
unit of ; UniCredit Bank Hungary Zrt.OTP Bank, a unit of UniCredit
SpA (UCG.MI); K&H Bank Zrt., a unit of KBC Bank (KBC.BT) of
Belgium; Hungarian mortgage bank FHB Mortgage Bank Nyrt. (FHB.BU);
CIB Bank Zrt., a unit of Italian banking group Intesa Sanpaolo SpA
(ISP.MI); Hungarian state-owned development bank MFB Zrt.;
Raiffeisen Bank Zrt., a unit of Raiffeisen Bank International AG
(RBI.VI) of Austria; and Budapest Bank Zrt., a unit of U.S. banking
group GE Money Bank.
--Veronika Gulyas contributed to this article.
Write to Margit Feher at margit.feher@dowjones.com