Gergey Gulyas of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party says the government has no idea yet how much it will cost banks in the country to phase out their foreign exchange loans. Portfolio.hu writes that the decision by Hungary’s supreme court earlier this week that banks would have to compensate clients for improperly calculating monthly payments following the devaluation of the country’s currency, the forint. “Even in the best-case scenario, we will go only as far so that foreign currency debtors would not be worse off than those with HUF loans,” he said. He allowed that some estimates that the procedure could cost banks around HUF 400bn were “in the ballpark” but insisted the government had yet to make any calculations on the issue. Fidesz won the last elections in Hungary in part based on promises to sort out the foreign exchange loan mess, which has held back the country’s consumer market.
