Today, during the Business Forum “Supporting Economic Growth in Hungary and the CEE Region”, organised as part of the events of the 105^th Council Meeting of the International Investment Bank (IIB), the IIB and OTP Bank signed the Strategic Cooperation Agreement. This is the first such document signed by the IIB with a Hungarian entity, and this renewed multilateral lender has gained a strategic partner in the country.

Hungary returned to the IIB as a shareholder and member state last year after an unprecedented, wide-scale reform of the institution, which has been growing dynamically for the past several years. The country has now hosted the 105^th meeting of IIB’s highest governing body – an ideal venue for signing the agreement between the IIB and OTP Bank, which have been already enjoying a good working relationship.

The signed document mentions various areas for close collaboration, specifically, joint participation in various projects through a number of financial instruments, cooperation on financial markets, support of trade finance, exchange of best practices and other, all based on a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership. It will allow both parties to bring their resources together for a greater impact.

Commenting on the signing, Deputy Chairman of the IIB Board, Jozef Kollar, said: “We aim to work with other financial institutions as often as possible, especially in our member states, and we are pleased that today we have institutionalised our strategic partnership with a leading local and regional lender. Therefore, I would like to welcome both OTP Bank and Hungary – now our third largest shareholder – to the IIB family.”

The strategic partnership between the IIB and Hungary’s largest commercial bank makes sense not only from the perspective of IIB’s efforts to stimulate the economy of its newest member. Perhaps even more importantly, it is significant from the point of view of the larger overlapping geographies of these two institutions, in light of OTP Bank’s position as one of the leading banking groups in Central and Eastern Europe, IIB’s largest region of operations. Combined, CEE countries account both for the largest part of IIB’s lending portfolio and for almost 49% of its capital.

Reference

OTP Bank – The predecessor of OTP Bank, called the National Savings Bank was established in 1949. After its privatisation, OTP Bank started its international expansion targeting countries in the CEE region, which offer great economic growth potentials similar to that of its domestic market. Besides Hungary, OTP Group currently operates in 8 countries of the region via its subsidiaries, providing high quality financial solutions to nearly 12 million customers through almost 1500 branches, agent networks and state-of-the-art electronic channels.