Until now, the focus had been on cutting costs and seeing to the “painful” process of staff restructuring, Balog said, adding that the management of MKB expects the bank to break even this year.

Plans to merge MKB with Budapest Bank, which the state acquired from Germanyʼs BayernLB, could be delayed until next year and in the event that the merger does proceed, the process could take several years to complete, Balog added.