Budapest, 11 November 2025 – The Magyar Nemzeti Bank once again conducted its Bank Sentiment Survey in October 2025. Based on the responses, the banking system assessed the economic situation as unchanged overall during the previous six months. According to the banks, the economic environment has deteriorated, the regulatory environment has tightened and bank profitability has declined, but developments in market competition and demand for banking products continue to exert a positive impact on the situation of banks. Looking ahead, banks expect economic conditions to improve over the next six months.
Factors determining developments in economic sentiment:
- According to the banks, the economic environment had deteriorated. During the previous six months (2025 Q2–Q3), in net terms, one-fifth of the responding institutions perceived deterioration in the macro environment, both domestically and internationally. Looking ahead to 2025 Q4 and 2026 Q1, however, banks are optimistic, with almost one-third expecting economic conditions to improve; this view is typical for large banks in particular, where the ratio is close to two-thirds.
- Banks indicated that market competition is intensifying. In relation to the stronger competition, respondents highlighted household and payment services in particular and also indicated increased competition from non-bank players.
- According to the banks, access to funds has not changed significantly in the past six months. Responding banks deemed both the availability of short-term and long-term funds and the interbank liquidity situation to be unchanged overall, and a significant portion of them also do not foresee any change in this regard going forward.
- The creditworthiness of corporate clients has deteriorated according to 38 percent of large banks with significant loan portfolios, but this has not been accompanied by a deterioration in portfolio quality. In the light of the current domestic and international economic environment, 50 percent of large banks expect corporate creditworthiness to deteriorate further, and 31 percent believe that this may affect the quality of their loan portfolios over the next six months. Banks did not report any significant changes in other segments.
- The increase in credit demand was felt by a significant proportion of institutions, particularly in the household segment. During the next two quarters, a substantial proportion of the banks expect demand to grow in both the household and corporate segments.
- Tightening of the regulatory environment was felt primarily by medium-sized and small banks, while large banks did not report any significant changes overall.
- The decline in banks’ pre-impairment profitability has stopped, and an increase in operating expenses was reported by a similar proportion of banks as before, at nearly one-half. Looking ahead, a net 19 percent of large banks expect their profitability to increase.
Overall, based on the Bank Sentiment Index calculated as the difference between the number of banks experiencing an improving and deteriorating economic situation,[1] respondents perceived their operating environment to be unchanged in mid-2025, whereas looking ahead to the next six months, they expect the economic situation to improve.
Changes in the Bank Sentiment Index by bank size
Note: The Bank Sentiment Index is the arithmetic average of seven components (economic environment, market competition, availability of funds, customer risk, demand, regulation and profitability). The last data point is a forward looking expectation. Source: MNB Bank Sentiment Survey
In the Bank Sentiment Survey, the net ratio is obtained by dividing the difference between the number of banks reporting an improvement and the number reporting a deterioration in response to the given question by the number of responding institutions. The answers are not weighted by the market share of individual institutions.
Detailed results and the figures of the Bank Sentiment Survey are available on the MNB’s website at the following link:
https://www.mnb.hu/en/financial-stability/publications/bank-sentiment-survey
[1] The Bank Sentiment Index is made up of seven components: economic environment, market competition, availability of funds, customer risk, demand, regulation and profitability. The Bank Sentiment Index is given as the arithmetic average of the ratio of the difference in responses to each component (improvement and deterioration) in relation to the entire scope of observation.