MNB must release MKB sale information, court says

Image by Jessica Fejos
The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) must release data of public interest regarding the sale of MKB Bank, after the Budapest Municipal Appellate Court yesterday decided to uphold a first-instance ruling of the Budapest Municipal Court dated October 7, according to reports.
MNB始s appeal against the Budapest Municipal Court始s decision was rejected in a case involving the central bank and Hungarian weekly Magyar Narancs, according to a court document dated March 9 and published on Transparency International始s site, reports say.
MKB Bank was sold to a consortium of two private equity funds, Blue Robin Investments and METIS Private Capital Fund, and Hungary始s Pannonia Pension Fund for HUF 37 billion in summer 2016.
The Hungarian media had on numerous occasions asked the central bank to reveal information about the sellers, as the background of them was unclear. Later a private individual filed a request for information on the ownership of MKB始s buyers, arguing that the lenders始 shares qualified as public assets, and should be made public, but the central bank declined to publish the information.
The Budapest court said MKB始s shares did qualify as public assets and added that the MNB was carrying out a public task when it restructured MKB, Hungarian new agency MTI reported.
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