Erste Bank Hungary made a HUF 43.9bn loss (after taxes) for the first six months of 2014, which marked a significant decline from the HUF 26.2bn loss it recorded for the same period last year. The bank is blaming these losses directly on measures taken by the Hungarian government to compensate its clients who took out foreign currency based loans. In addition, the continually falling base interest rate from the Hungarian Central Bank is having a negative effect on the bank’s numbers. Its loans have fallen by 4 percent while deposits fell 9 percent, while net interest has plummeted 7 percent compared to the first half of 2013.
