Legislation approved by Parliament last year requires lenders to compensate borrowers for making unilateral changes to loan contracts. However, the law applies differently to contracts signed after November 26, 2010, when stricter transparency rules came into force.
Legislation on the settlement of the compensation required 210 Hungarian financial institutions to submit data to the MNB in March on contracts signed after this date. Of these, 138 said they had not made unilateral changes to loan contracts, while 56 institutions conceded they had and volunteered to compensate clients.
The MNB took the remaining 16 – Aegon Magyarország Hitel, Borsod Takarék Takarékszövetkezet, CIB Bank, CIB Lízing, Citibank Europe Magyarországi Fióktelepe, FHB Jelzálogbank, FHB Kereskedelmi Bank, Magyar Cetelem Bank, MKB-Euroleasing Autohitel, MKB-Euroleasing Autolízing, OTP Bank, OTP Jelzálogbank, Örkényi Takarékszövetkezet, Sopron Bank Burgenland, UCB Ingatlanhitel and Zalavölgye Takarékszövetkezet – to court.
The MNB recounted on Thursday that the court had decided in twelve first-instance rulings that the lendersʼ contracts were wholly or in part invalid. The Court of Appeals upheld one of the rulings, while two of the parties volunteered to compensate their clients, resulting in the cancellation of their court cases, and one of the cases was suspended because of a rectification procedure, the MNB added.
In two more cases, the first-instance rulings became legally binding after appeals were not made, and the defendants in two more cases have not appealed to the MNBʼs knowledge.
The court has 45 days to decide on cases that have been appealed, the MNB noted.
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