Under a set of new laws that passed last week, banks operating on the Hungarian market must convert foreign currency mortgages into forints starting in December. Lenders will also be forced to repay borrowers for unfair fees and interest rate increases applied to loans over the last 10 years, according to Reuters.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet is hoping to get rid of loans that were secured at a cheap rate before the economic crisis hit in 2008 but have now become increasingly more expensive as the Hungarian currency continues to decrease in value. The national bank estimates that lenders will have to cover 600 to 900 billion forints in compensation costs.
