If OTP had booked the prorated amount of the bank levy and windfall profit tax, after-tax profit would have been HUF 324.4 bln, HUF 147.4 bln higher than the accounted profit and up 9% from the base period.

Net interest income increased 13% to HUF 527.3 bln and net revenue from commissions and fees edged down 1pc to HUF 137.9 bln.

Total risk costs came to HUF 15.4 bln, more than halved from HUF 32.9 bln in the base period.

Diluted earnings per share came to HUF 692.

OTP booked a HUF 14.2 bln loss at its core business in Hungary because of the sectoral taxes accounting measure. Adjusted for that impact, after-tax profit surged 87% to 119.7 bln. Profit of OTP Bank Russia declined 18% to HUF 50.4 bln and profit of its Bulgarian unit, DSK Group, slipped 10% to HUF 43.8 bln.

Profit of Ipoteka Bank, in Uzbekistan, climbed 34% to HUF 17.4 bln.

Profit of OTP Bank Ukraine dropped 38% to HUF 9.2 bln.

Considering the loss booked in Hungary, OTP’s foreign units generated all of the lender’s profits in Q1.

OTP Total Assets Growing

OTP had total assets of HUF 47.861 trillion at the end of March, up 8% from twelve months earlier. Gross stock of client loans rose 16% to HUF 27.793 tln and client deposits increased 11% to HUF 34.847 tln.

The ratio of stage 3 loans under IFRS 9 edged down 0.2 pp to 3.4%. OTP’s management affirmed full-year guidance, putting FX-adjusted organic performing loan volume growth around the 15% achieved in 2025.

They also put net interest margin around the 4.34% in 2025, while flagging a “somewhat higher” cost-to-income ratio and lower ROE due to an expected decrease in leverage.

At a press conference after the report was released, deputy-CEO László Bencsik said the windfall profit tax OTP must pay in 2026 had more than doubled to HUF 115 bln. That additional burden, he said, raised legal questions as well as hurt the local banking sector’s international competitiveness, and he expressed hope Hungary would return to “Western European” banking sector practices.

He said the new government planned to build a competitive country in which such measures “have no place” and suggested the sectoral taxes could be gradually phased out, “although certainly not this year”.

He added that the windfall profit tax could be phased out now that the state of emergency had ended.

Bencsik said any decision by the new government on rate freezes rolled out by the previous government could have an impact in the next quarter.

He added that Finance Minister András Kármán’s choice of Gyula Barabás, a former OTP managing director, for budget state secretary, was a “big win” for the country.

Bencsik acknowledged the boost to retail lending from the Home Start subsidised credit scheme for first-time home buyers.

He added that OTP’s share of the local corporate credit market had reached a new high: 21.6%.