Bratislava, 1 October 2025 – “Central banks play a key role in the development of capital markets by ensuring a stable, resilient financial system and supporting it with adequate supervision and regulation,” according to MNB Governor Mihály Varga, speaking at a research conference organised by the Slovak central bank. He added that in the current, uncertain global economic situation, it was particularly important to develop capital markets through the combination of savings and investments, making it possible to promote sustainable growth and boost competitiveness.
Governor Varga emphasised that an important task of central banks was to develop financial markets and ensure adequate regulation, thus promoting stability. One good example of this was the MNB’s set of certified financial products, which incorporated both consumer-friendly features and financial stability factors. The recently launched Certified Corporate Loan scheme also fell into this category, fostering qualitative change on the market by providing preferential, easily accessible forint-based loans for SMEs wishing to invest. Varga pointed it out that, in addition to national and EU-level initiatives, regional cooperation was also indispensable in this area and noted that in August 2025 seven countries – Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, North Macedonia and Hungary – had signed a Memorandum of Understanding for closer cooperation and more uniform capital markets, with the Budapest Stock Exchange also participating in the latter. “The initiative’s primary goal is to improve liquidity, efficiency and competitiveness in the region, opening up opportunities for the participating countries to deepen their financial cooperation in the region,” he explained. He also pointed out that the MNB’s commitment to strengthening capital markets was well evidenced by the performance of the Budapest Stock Exchange, the capitalisation of which had more than tripled in the past decade, with the BUX index doubling in the past two years.
Magyar Nemzeti Bank