Economy 19 September 2024, 4:34pm

Hungary EcoMin asks cooperation from banks, move to affect housing loans

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Hungary's Economy Minister Márton Nagy has on Thursday held a meeting with representatives of the Banking Association, where he asked for the banks' cooperation on four points. Among other things, he asked the banks to reduce the APR of home loans below 5% on a "voluntary" basis, presented the details of the "working credit", asked for the technical background for tax-free tipping and the digitalisation of SZÉP cards.

The minister is asking for the banks' cooperation on the following four points:

Nagy has informed banks about the details of the Workers' Loan, which will in future provide a significant start-up support for workers aged between 17 and 22. The minister asked the representatives of the banks to prepare themselves for the rapid introduction of the loan.
he asked banks to voluntarily reduce the APR (annual percentage rate) on home loans to below 5%.
The technical conditions must be in place to guarantee tax-free tipping, said Nagy. To this end, the minister asked the banks to carry out the development of POS terminals as soon as possible, which could lead to the creation of a separate "TIP" function. This will allow the terminal to split the bill into two parts and deposit the tip directly into the waiter's account and the consumption value into the company's account.
Finally, Márton Nagy noted that there are currently nearly HUF 100 billion of free resources available to the public through SZÉP cards. In order to ensure that the tax-advantaged fringe benefit is fully utilised and put into the economy, it is necessary for banks to digitise SZÉP cards, i.e. to enable payments to be made by mobile phone. This could significantly boost usage.

The parties agreed to continue discussions and negotiations in the future. The Economy Minister has urged the Banking Association to work out within two months when and how his specific requests can be met.