16 December 2016

At today's General Meeting of the Budapest Stock Exchange, recently acquired by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB), the new management of the institution was elected. The shareholders of the stock exchange elected Márton Nagy as Chairman of the Board of Directors and Dr. Ferenc Gerhardt as Chairman of the Supervisory Board. As of 1 January 2016 the Chief Executive Officer of BSE will be Richárd Végh. It is the primary objective of the MNB to ensure that in the next period the stock exchange, which has come under national ownership recently, can offer adequate capital raising opportunities to domestic companies, thereby providing capital market support for channelling the savings in the economy toward investments to an increasing degree.

At the General Meeting of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) held on Wednesday, the owners of the stock exchange elected the members of the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board of the stock exchange. At their meeting held after the General Meeting, the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board, both of them consisting of five members, elected Márton Nagy and Dr. Gerhardt Ferenc as their Chairman, respectively. The Board of Directors appointed Richárd Végh as Chief Executive Officer of the BSE with effect from 1 January 2016. The BSE elected its new management after that the MNB concluded a sales contract at the end of November with the Austrian CEESEG AG and Österreichische Kontrollbank AG in respect of their ownership share of 68.8 per cent, and thereby increasing its ownership share in the BSE to 75.8 per cent. With this transaction the MNB obtained controlling ownership in the Hungarian stock exchange, which thereby once again became national property.

The key objective of the MNB is to improve the stock exchange and develop an efficiently operating capital market of appropriate size, which contributes to making the structure of the financial system sounder and to the further whitening of the economy by ensuring the transparency of the companies listed on the stock exchange. In order to realise its objectives, the management of BSE will elaborate the new strategy of the institution by the end of February. The realisation of the strategic goals is supported by the new ownership structure, ensuring efficient operation, as well as the cooperation with the government in the improvement of the Hungarian capital market. The MNB plans to implement a variety of strategic innovations that serve the development of the national capital market and the strengthening of the stock exchange, and in addition provide domestic stock exchange issuers and investors with proper incentives. As a result of this strategy and the reform of the operation of BSE, a financial system of sounder structure may be established in Hungary, which will serve economic growth more efficiently. For this purpose the stock exchange plans to introduce new services and sections, in addition to strengthening its global relations. During the elaboration of the new strategy the MNB wishes to cooperate with the stakeholder market participants; for this purpose it established the Stock Exchange Advisory Board, under the leadership of Mihály Patai, Chairman and CEO of UniCredit Bank, which will commence its work in the near future.

Members of the Board of Directors of the Budapest Stock Exchange

  • Márton Nagy (Magyar Nemzeti Bank)
  • Richárd Végh (Magyar Nemzeti Bank; Budapest Stock Exchange as of 1 January 2016)
  • Zsolt Selmeczi-Kovács (GIRO Elszámolásforgalmi Zrt.)
  • Róbert Barlai (OTP Bank)
  • György Bacsa (MOL Nyrt.)

Members of the Supervisory Board of the Budapest Stock Exchange

  • Ferenc Gerhardt (Magyar Nemzeti Bank)
  • Zsolt Kuti (Magyar Nemzeti Bank)
  • Lajos Bartha (Magyar Nemzeti Bank)
  • Károly Régely (Concorde Értékpapír Zrt.)
  • György Herczku (KBC Securities Corporate Finance)