Thousands of people bailed out by the banks

Thanks to the digital switchover and bank mergers, there are fewer and fewer places where customers can do their banking in person. The average number of bank staff has fallen by almost 1,000 in three months. At the end of March, there were 39 499 employees in credit institutions, but at the end of June the number had fallen to 38 585.

Hungarian banks have made unprecedented profits this year, but much of this is virtual profit. The number of customers being lent to is falling, and so are the number of depositors - a small town's worth of retail customers have closed their deposit accounts in three months. There have also been branch closures and layoffs in the sector, according to an analysis by Bank360.hu.

Banks' non-consolidated - i.e. in Hungary - total assets have increased by 6.5 percent since mid-2022, but have been on a downward trend since the beginning of the year, standing at HUF 71,440 billion at end-June. Deposits have fallen sharply this year. In the third quarter of last year, deposit holdings suddenly jumped to an all-time high of HUF 44300 billion, possibly due to the emergence of the 18 percent MNB deposit tenders.

Thanks to the digital switchover and bank mergers, there are fewer and fewer places where customers can do their banking in person. According to the central bank, the number of branches has fallen to 1,487, meaning another three branches have closed since March. The average number of bank employees has also fallen by almost 1,000 in three months. At the end of March, there were 39 499 employees at credit institutions, but at the end of June the number had fallen to 38 585.

The number of customers has also declined since the first quarter. The number of customers lent to fell by 38.5 thousand, of which more than 33 thousand were retail customers. A total of 3.42 million borrowed customers remain with banks, of which just under 3.2 million are residential. The number of depositors fell by 55 thousand to 10.13 million. In three months, a small number of retail customers, 50.6 thousand people, closed their deposit accounts, leaving only 9.23 million deposit accounts for the population.

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