He vowed not to quit and said calls for him to do so were inexplicable. “Why should the head of a central bank step down if the bank operates well and lawfully, and pursues new and successful monetary policies which have allowed it to forward around 1,000 billion forints to Hungarian society?”

Referring to the bank’s controversial foundations, he said the central bank law does not prohibit the bank from carrying out educational activities but stipulates that the bank should help the government’s economic policy. Supporting education is an important element of social responsibility and can contribute to a successful economic and social policy, he added.

Regarding investments made by the bank, Matolcsy referred to “national identity and the accumulation of treasures”. “If the central bank can generate resources in a transparent manner to repurchase art objects taken away from Hungary, then it should do so.

This strengthens the national identity and increases national wealth.” In the European Union, some twothirds of central banks are involved in one way or another in purchasing art objects, offering education activities and launching financial awareness schemes, he added. In response to a question concerning 267 billion forints paid to the central bank foundations and the alleged profiting by relatives, he said everybody can take responsibility for their own family.

“When I said my family had no offshore interests, I meant my close family, which means my wife, my two sons and myself. I have about 100 cousins in Hungary and around 3-400 relatives around the world. The situation is clear even in the case of the internet portal VS.hu: my cousin has denied that the publisher of the paper was part of his interests,” Matolcsy said.

He added that the foundations do not examine the owners behind the supported projects. Regarding the identical studies ordered by all the foundations from a company owned by Tamás Szemerey, one of Matolcsy’s cousins, he said the BanKonzult studies were ordered by the foundations and the central bank because they contained important information for making financial decisions.

The studies were purchased separately by every foundation for copyright reasons, he added. Matolcsy said the central bank had made 136 billion forints in profit from forint conversions but this was due to a supreme court Kuria decision stipulating the market exchange rate that had to be used.

He said the bank could have indeed transferred 267 billion forints into the budget instead of paying this amount to its foundations and compensate FX loan holders or fill the gaps in the health system or increase pensions but “we considered education the most important”.

Matolcsy said in the future every foundation will be obliged to invite public tenders for purchases that fall under the public procurement law.

Source: www.hungarymatters.hu
Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.