Although observers note that the conversion was planned long ago as part of borrower’s relief, Bloomberg said the conversion came just in time to save Hungarian borrowers from more pain.

“Orbán in November forced Hungarian banks to make financial arrangements to convert 3.3 trillion forint ($12 billion) in foreign-currency mortgages, overwhelmingly denominated in Swiss francs, into local currency. The move, to be completed this year, prevented a 700 billion-forint jump in household debt when the Swiss National Bank (SNBN) set the franc free yesterday [on Thursday], Hungary’s monetary authority said.” Bloomberg writes.