Quaestor victim Éva Himmer noted that the deadline stipulated by law for compensation had expired 90 days ago. She called on lawmakers “on behalf of 32,000 people” to clearly demonstrate their political intent to support Quaestor victims. She added that nobody had received more than 30% compensation so far, which means full compensation was not offered even under the 6 million forints limit.

Earlier on Monday, Fidesz said that the legal framework is ready for compensation to be paid. More than 86 billion forints have been paid out to 31,113 clients by the end of October. It is the leftist parties and the radical nationalist Jobbik who had been trying to obstruct the approval of laws in connection with compensation, it said.

Compensation for clients with more than 6 million forints invested was obstructed by banks when they turned to the Constitutional Court for a review. The top court put the case on its agenda at the end of October, but it has not yet ruled. Compensation still owed to clients can be paid out when the constitutional court decides that the laws passed are not unconstitutional, Fidesz said.

The ruling party responded to a proposal by the opposition Socialists that the law on Quaestor should be amended with a promising, guaranteeing cash compensation by the state.

The leftist opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) also weighed in on the Quaestor issue, demanding the government recover all the funds that went “missing” in wake of the brokerage scandal. On March 10, the central bank partially suspended the operational permit of Quaestor Securities and appointed a commissioner after irregularities had been revealed.

The day before, the Quaestor group’s issuer Quaestor Financial Hrurira filed for bankruptcy. A central bank investigation revealed that out of 210 billion forints corporate bonds issued by Quaestor Securities, some 150 billion forints were “fictitious”.

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MTI photo: Kovács Attila