The positive outlook on OTP Bank and OTP Mortgage Bank has taken into account S&Pʼs expectation of a “more benign operating environment in Hungary, and to a certain extent, in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe”.

“We could raise our ratings on [OTP Bank and OTP Mortgage Bank] by one notch, if in the next 12 months, we concluded that conditions in the domestic real estate market and the purchasing power of households had improved, while credit demand picked up, leading to less credit risks and better earnings for Hungarian banks,” S&P said. “Conversely, if economic risks for Hungarian banks donʼt decrease as we currently anticipate over our outlook horizon, we could revise the outlook on OTP Bank to stable,” it added.

“The positive outlook on Takarékbank reflects the improving economic environment in Hungary, and its expected tighter integration into the group of Hungarian savings bank cooperatives,” S&P added.

At the same time as it revised the outlooks, S&P affirmed its ʼBBʼ long-term and ʼBʼ short-term counterparty credit ratings on OTP Bank and OTP Mortgage Bank, and its ʼBB-ʼ long-term and ʼBʼ short-term counterparty credit ratings on Takarékbank. S&P made the changes to the outlooks after completing a review of systemic risks in Hungaryʼs banking sector, as well as after raising its long-term sovereign ratings for Hungary to ʼBB+ʼ on March 20, 2015.