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Mr. Chairman, Shareholders, Ladies and Gentlemen,
At the outset, I must clarify that I do not own any OTP shares. Therefore I cannot trade them – either legitimately or through insider trading. I am here as a guest and thank you for the honour of inviting me. It is not often that a politician attends a shareholders’ meeting of a public limited company, and I have consulted an encyclopaedia to point me in the right direction. The shareholders’ meeting is the main decision-making body of a public limited company, in which shareholders exercise their rights in the management of the company: articles of association, election of directors, decisions on capital increase and dividends, and the adoption of the annual accounts. Consulting the dictionary was a good idea, because I realised that I was not so new to this. My profession, politics, is similar to yours. Of course, the country is not a public limited company. The country has not only a body, but also a soul; not only an economy, but also citizens. The country has not only money, but also history, tradition, and spiritual and intellectual life. The country and its citizens not only want to live well, as shareholders do, but also with beauty. This is why in our field the shares cannot be sold if you do not like the direction they are going in. Our code of ethics says “Here you must live and here you must die”. But there are similarities. For you, who can vote is determined by your share register, while for us it is the electoral roll. We also have shareholders: 10 million of them; and 8 million of them have the right to vote. Just as the board of directors runs a public limited company, so it is the Government’s job to make the shareholders happy when dividends are paid. We have a shareholders’ meeting only every four years, but then there is a huge turnout – everyone comes. Compared to our shareholders, OTP shareholders are very soft-hearted. With us, it is much easier for the whole board to be sent packing. We also have a supervisory board, in the shape of the Opposition, and I sincerely hope that your version of this does its job better than ours does.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
If I look at Hungary through a financial lens, I see that nominal GDP in Hungary will be 95 trillion forints in 2026. Government debt will be 73.2 per cent, the budget deficit will be 3.7 per cent, and we will have at least 4.7 million people in work. The book value of state assets at the end of 2023 was 22.939 trillion forints. This is a 97 per cent increase since 2010. These are figures of such magnitude that they could be accepted by the OTP Annual General Meeting. And in this huge national economy OTP is a prominent player, even a crown jewel. Every year the performance that OTP contributes to the Hungarian national economy is one that we should salute. And we do.
Honourable meeting, Ladies and Gentlemen,
András Fáy would probably be proud to see what OTP has become since, at his suggestion, the First National Savings Bank of Pest started its operations 185 years ago. There is no need to guess at this, because András Fáy left behind many anecdotes and aphorisms. In one place he wrote: “Money is political air. Without it, you who live in society cannot breathe.” He goes on to say, “He who would foolishly waste it, therefore, is like a pearl fisher or diver who, at the expense of his life, would recklessly discharge the air trapped in his glass bell. But he that sits on a heap of treasure and is fearful of spending his money is like a wretched flickering lamp in the putrid vapours of a mouldering crypt.” Fáy does not mince his words: he says that money is needed in order to realise political intentions. If there is insufficient money, political goals remain simply goals, and are never achieved. For example, the Hungarian government’s desire for a family-oriented society would be in vain if it was unable to spend the share of national GDP needed for this – say 5–6 per cent, at least. Fáy teaches us that there are two things we must not do: waste money, because then it will run out; and fail to use money, because then it will not be put to productive use. We will either suffocate from lack of air, or from the poisonous fumes of miserliness.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As far as the present is concerned, the Government has basic principles which relate to banks. These are well known. We have three such principles. The first principle is that the Government always sides with the smaller players, ordinary people, against the stronger players. Some people see this as hostility to banks, but those who see it in that way are wrong. They are wrong because in the financial system, as in all important areas of life, balance is of the essence. And this does not emerge automatically: it must be created by the Government, in sound and desirable agreement with you. Our second principle is that for Hungary the banking sector is strategic. So in Hungary banks must prosper. There is no such thing as a rich country with poor banks. If banks in a country are doing badly, who is doing well there? And our third principle is that the banking system also plays an important role in Hungary’s favourable international position.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In recent years, the Hungarian banking sector – and especially OTP – has concluded several agreements with the Government. These agreements have been followed by successful programmes. Let us not forget that through our joint efforts we managed to defuse the ticking time bomb of foreign currency-denominated loans. Another successful joint programme is for student loans. This is our longest-standing programme with you, and within it OTP is responsible for the lion’s share, undertaking to manage the accounts of young people with student loans at a reduced cost. This is a great help for young Hungarians. A successful joint programme is the one for childbirth support loans. The fact that the banking sector can be involved in population policy issues is a Hungaricum of global significance. With the help of the banks, by mid-April 2025 more than 271,000 loans have been disbursed. We have a joint programme of workers’ loans. Another joint programme is the 5 per cent housing loan for young people. The banking system has pledged to provide young people with preferential home loans at a maximum interest rate of 5 per cent for seven months between 1 April and 31 October 2025. On behalf of young people, I thank OTP for your cooperation!
Honourable meeting, Ladies and Gentlemen!
I remember how popular it used to be – back in the 1990s, and even in the 2000s – to think that the nationality of bank owners is irrelevant. It was said – perhaps taking a leaf from the Romans of old – that money has no smell. Then we learned that money has no smell, but its owners do. What happened in 2008 was that foreign-owned banks took their money out of Hungary and repatriated it as quickly as possible. They stopped lending, and we Hungarians were left high and dry. This is why, since 2010, we have worked to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the Hungarian banking sector is in Hungarian hands. And we have managed to achieve this.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Honourable meeting,
OTP plays a key role in the development of the Hungarian banking system and the country as a whole. The OTP banking group’s loan portfolio of 22.6 trillion forints is larger than the combined loan portfolios of all other banking groups operating in Hungary. Not only would the Hungarian credit market be unimaginable without OTP, but also the Hungarian capital market. The proof of the bank’s strength is that, as we have heard, in 2024 70 per cent of its profits came from its foreign interests, and 30 per cent from its Hungarian interests. This is unprecedented – perhaps even in the entire history of the Hungarian economy. During the dissolution of Hungarian communism the success of OTP would have been unthinkable without Sándor Csányi. His merits are imperishable, and his work is proof that it is possible to preserve a large Hungarian company as a national champion, while at the same time completely removing all elements of state ownership from it. Sándor Csányi and OTP succeeded in this: it was not traded away, no takeover of it was allowed, and strategic control remained in the hands of the management. I wish the new CEO the same success. OTP has always been able to innovate, and has always been able to maintain its dominant role in its home country. OTP is a great, shared Hungarian success. Hungary can be proud of you – and it is. Thank you for two decades of cooperation. Thank you for the fact that we have always concluded disputes in a mutually beneficial way. To those who object to the fact that I make rules for the banks even though I have never been a banker myself and therefore cannot “know the ropes”, I can only say that Sándor Csányi also runs the MLSZ [Hungarian Football Federation] without ever having played football in one of the higher divisions. The point is that results speak for themselves.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In the future the Hungarian government will continue to pursue a peace strategy. Our reading of the situation is that the final balance sheet of war is always negative, while the balance sheet of peace is always positive. Our peace strategy can therefore also be interpreted as a strategy for economic prosperity. The Government’s peace strategy guarantees that Hungarian companies will be reliable partners for all countries – even those countries which lie on geopolitical fault lines. It is thanks to the Government’s peace strategy that OTP is also welcome as an investor in those countries that are geopolitical hotspots. In addition to Ukraine and Russia, OTP has emerged as a major player in the Balkans, in Moldova and in Central Asia. If the war can finally be brought to an end, and the Hungarian government is working towards that goal, huge opportunities will open up in markets that are still at war today. And I am sure that OTP will be a winner.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
On behalf of the Hungarian government, I would once again like to express my appreciation and admiration for the employees and management of OTP, for Chairman Csányi and for the shareholders. Thank you for your work to date. I wish you further great transactions and international success!
Hungary before all else, God above us all! Go Hungary, go OTP!
Thank you for your kind attention.
