After a meeting with association leaders, the sides agreed that lenders would waive fees on no-frills retail accounts until headline CPI remained under 4pc - the upper threshold of the central bank's tolerance band - for three consecutive months.

Banks also agreed to inform their clients of cheaper account packages that could better suit them, undertake a customer information campaign detailing and comparing account costs, use the central bank's account package calculator on their websites to help clients select the best account for their needs, and allow clients to close old accounts online.

OTP takes steps to bring down retail banking fees

Hungary's biggest commercial lender, OTP Bank announced on Tuesday steps in line with government efforts to bring down service price inflation.

After talks between the National Economy Ministry and the Hungarian Banking Association, OTP said it was prepared to freeze retail account and bank card fees until June 30, 2026.

The lender said it would counter inflation-linked fee increases for retail clients introduced on March 1 by extending discounts worth several billion forints, and reducing their banking costs by close to HUF 2bn in the twelve months starting May 1.

As a result, OTP will comply with the request of the national economy minister to roll back retail banking fees to levels at the start of 2025, it added.

Erste Bank voluntarily agrees to limit fee increases until next summer

Erste announced that it will definitely not increase the fees for retail bank accounts and debit cards linked to bank accounts by the rate of inflation until June 30, 2026, just as it did not do so this year, the financial institution told MTI.

Erste made this decision in support of the Ministry of National Economy's request for a voluntary limitation of the premium increase.

They recalled that the financial institution had previously decided not to implement the option of inflation-tracking fee increases for retail accounts this year, as announced on March 3 at its press conference on financial results.

Now, it is among the first to make a voluntary commitment to abandon inflation-tracking and operating cost-related fee increases by the second half of next year. The fees will not change, and therefore no fee refunds will be necessary, they added.

Key lenders comply with request to reduce retail account fees in Hungary

Hungarian lenders have said they will comply with a request by the National Economy Ministry to bring down retail account fees.

MBH Bank, the runner-up on the local banking market, said it would cut its retail account and bank card fees by around HUF 1.5bn, level with the inflation-linked increase effective April 30, and pledged to freeze those fees until June 30, 2026.

MBH Bank has over 2 million retail clients.

K+H Bank said it would waive an inflation-linked retail account fee increases in force from April 1 in the framework of a promotion until June 30, 2026.

Fees in the promotion will be level with those at the start of 2025, it added.

UniCredit Bank said it would counter its retail account and bank card fees increases rolled out on March 1 and would keep fees unchanged until the end of June, 2026.

Raiffeisen Bank said it would cut its retail account fees by the same degree as the inflation-linked increase for 2025.

CIB Bank said it would refund its retail clients an inflation-linked fee hike and keep its fees unchanged through June 30, 2026.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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