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Government submits bill on FX loans

September 16th, 2014

A right-wing columnist welcomes the government bill submitted to Parliament on Friday, which would force banks to return a total of 1000 billion Forints to mortgage holders, on the grounds that the money was unfairly collected. He suggests that once the process is completed, all FX loans should be converted to Forint credits.

On Friday, the government submitted to Parliament its second bill on FX loans (see BudaPost November2013 through August 2014). If the bill is passed, banks will have to refund a total of 1000 billion Forints. As a result, the installments of debtors will decrease by 24 to 30 per cent. The government will make a decision on converting FX loans into Forint credit later this year.

If Fidesz had been defeated in the April elections, banks would hardly have been made to pay, Gergely Kiss writes in Magyar Nemzet. The conservative commentator believes that the issue of foreign currency denominated loans is the most important question in Hungary, since it affects 1.3 million households. If banks pay back the instalments which were collected unfairly, the government should take one more step forward and convert all foreign currency denominated loans into Forint credits with the help of the National Bank, Kiss recommends. By eliminating FX loans, the Hungarian economy will become less vulnerable, he suggests.

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