Best bank 2025: OTP Bank
In 2024, OTP Bank excelled through its digital innovation, impressive financial performance, and strengthened commitment to sustainability.
The bank saw a record profit after tax of Ft1,076 billion ($3.16 billion) last year, with return on equity reaching 23.5%. Fee and commission income also grew by 11%, while the cost/income ratio improved to 51%, reflecting greater operational efficiency. The bank’s capital position remained strong, with a CET1 ratio of 18.9%, well above regulatory requirements.
In terms of digital innovation, the bank made a series of enhancements to its services, including the expansion of its mobile banking platform. Digital sales rose from 18.5% to 33.1% in 2024, driven by new tools such as selfie-based account opening and the launch of Qvik instant payments, providing a more streamlined service for clients.
Last year, the bank grew its green loan portfolio by 57% to Ft1,027 billion – surpassing its annual target – with 42% of the total allocated to renewable energy. The bank also achieved net carbon neutrality in its Hungarian operations and expanded its green loan framework to include 51 economic activities. In addition, it launched a new environmental and social risk management framework aligned with International Finance Corporation standards, further embedding sustainability into its lending practices.
Best investment bank 2025: OTP Bank
Driven by its impressive performance in capital markets activity and product innovation in 2024, OTP Bank has demonstrated strong momentum across its investment banking operations in Hungary.
Spanning sovereign, corporate and structured issuance, the bank originated or participated in nearly €4 billion of bond transactions during the year. This included €3.84 billion in international deals, where OTP Bank acted as sole or joint lead manager. Notable mandates included bond issuances for UniCredit Bank, MVM Zrt, and the bank’s own international placements, highlighting its structuring and syndication capabilities across currencies and credit tiers.
One of the most notable developments was the launch of a regional equity exchange-traded fund in March 2024. The fund tracks the CETOP Index, covering major CEE stock exchanges and offering clients exposure to both developed and frontier markets. As a UCITS-compliant, physically replicating product, it filled a gap in the regional investment landscape and is now market-made by OTP Bank on the Budapest Stock Exchange.
In addition, the bank significantly enhanced its market-making capabilities by expanding electronic execution and real-time pricing across more than 100 securities. This upgrade delivered greater functionality to clients and reinforced the bank’s role as a key player in regional capital markets.
Best digital bank 2025: K&H Bank
K&H Bank exemplifies digital banking excellence in Hungary, with its innovative approach to client onboarding and service expansion significantly enhancing customer experience and operational efficiency.
The bank achieved a remarkable milestone by digitally onboarding the majority of its new investment clients and seamlessly integrating pension insurance sales in their mobile app, as part of their “bank-insurance in your pocket” strategy. This initiative demonstrates the bank’s commitment to leveraging technology for comprehensive service delivery directly from users’ mobile devices.
In 2024, K&H Bank expanded the capabilities of its AI assistant, Kate, to cater to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), tailoring about 600 of her answers for the SME segment’s special needs. Kate now assists with client onboarding and transaction execution, and facilitates voice-activated parking ticket transactions, showcasing a sophisticated use of artificial intelligence to streamline and personalise banking processes.
Further enhancing its digital suite, K&H Bank introduced the Electra Corporate API and Credit DocFlow, revolutionary tools designed to facilitate smooth ERP integration and efficient credit document management, respectively. These technologies are pivotal in simplifying complex business banking operations and improving client satisfaction through digital channels.
The K&H+ initiative has been pivotal in integrating everyday services such as parking, public transport and utility payments into its mobile platform. Additionally, it offers cashback services, thus significantly enhancing daily convenience for users. The bank also launched new payment options including QR, NFC and Deeplink transfers in 2024, alongside offering a fully digital pension insurance product, and investments into mutual funds via the mobile app, aligning with modern consumer needs for swift and secure digital payment solutions.
Each of these accomplishments underscores K&H Bank’s leadership and innovation in digital banking within Hungary, making it a deserving winner of the award as Hungary’s best digital bank.
Best digital bank for SMEs 2025: MBH Bank Nyrt
MBH Bank Nyrt stands out as Hungary’s leading contender for the title of best digital bank for SMEs due to several significant advancements in its digital banking platform during 2024.
The platform’s registered user base expanded impressively to over 40,000, evidencing its broad adoption among Hungary’s business community. Notably, the service includes 28,000 users leveraging its innovative billing feature, reflecting a strong market uptake.
The introduction of API billing capabilities, a new feature in 2024, marks a significant technological enhancement as it allows for automated billing through the integration of business systems with BUPA. This initiative showcases MBH Bank’s commitment to streamlining financial processes for SMEs, enhancing operational efficiencies and aligning with modern business needs.
Further distinguishing its service, MBH Bank launched a buy now, pay later service. This service addresses the growing demand for flexible payment solutions, catering specifically to the financial dynamics of SMEs. The integration of Multibank AIS within the same year enabled the seamless automatic retrieval of account data from six banks, simplifying financial management and saving valuable administrative time.
A noteworthy achievement in 2024 was the launch of the PISP-licensed invoicing programme, allowing direct bank transactions from the platform. This feature considerably reduces the administrative burden on SMEs, improving overall financial transaction efficiency within MBH Bank’s digital ecosystem. Together, these strategic advancements not only enhance MBH Bank Nyrt’s position in Hungary’s digital banking sector but also significantly improve the financial operations of SMEs across the country.
Best bank for ESG 2025: K&H Bank
K&H Bank significantly reinforced its position as Hungary’s best bank for ESG through a series of focused financial and social initiatives in 2024.
Notably, the bank doubled its green loan stock, reaching over Ft460 billion ($1.35 billion) – an impressive achievement representing nearly 29% of the retail and 21% of the corporate market share in Hungary. This push reflects the bank’s leading role in financing environmentally sensitive projects, a crucial aspect considering the increasing global focus on sustainable finance.
In a substantial contribution towards renewable energy, K&H Bank provided over €88.7 million in financing that meets the criteria defined by the EU Taxonomy. This funding supported solar energy projects with a cumulative capacity of 110.8 MWp, demonstrating the bank’s impactful role in fostering Hungary’s transition to renewable sources.
Further reflecting its commitment to environmental concerns, K&H Bank reported a 74% reduction in its carbon footprint since 2015, with 5,243 tons of CO₂ emissions in 2024 alone. Its goal is to reduce its environmental footprint by 80% by 2030 compared to the base year of 2015 and it was already at 74% by 2024. Enhancing its green credentials, 73% of its car fleet has transitioned to hybrid vehicles.
Social responsibility has been woven into the bank’s operations, as evidenced by the launch of a national employee volunteering campaign and introduction of the Animal Friendly Groves biodiversity education programme in schools. These initiatives show the bank’s dedication to community engagement and environmental education.
Moreover, K&H Bank has strategically integrated ESG responsibilities into its leadership framework. Personalised sustainability targets are now linked to the remuneration of its top 50 managers, ensuring accountability and commitment at the highest levels of the organisation, thus setting an exemplary standard for corporate responsibility in the region. Such comprehensive actions put K&H Bank at the forefront of ESG banking in Hungary.
Best bank for sustainable finance 2025: OTP Bank
OTP Bank has distinguished itself as a leader in sustainable finance in Hungary, evidenced by the significant growth of its green loan portfolio, which expanded by 56% year-on-year to Ft1.027 trillion ($3 billion) in 2024.
The portfolio is comprehensively structured, comprising corporate loans amounting to Ft783 billion, retail loans of Ft193 billion, and green corporate bonds totalling Ft51 billion, with a strategic target set to escalate this to Ft1.5 trillion by 2025.
In its commitment to integrating global standards, OTP launched its environmental and social risk management system (ESMS) in 2024, aligning with International Finance Corporation standards. This systemic approach is being implemented across operations in Hungary, and already integrated into three of OTP Bank’s subsidiaries.
Further enhancing its ethical and sustainability commitments, OTP updated its ESG exclusion list in 2024, adding stringent prohibitions against forced and child labour. Additionally, the bank instituted new ESG risk limits specifically targeting tobacco-related exposures, with their outcomes monitored quarterly across the group.
Moreover, OTP Bank took a proactive stance by initiating its inaugural climate target setting for financed emissions in 2024. A public document detailing these targets is slated for release in April 2025, aligning the bank’s operations with the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero 2050 pathway and Hungary’s national decarbonisation plans. This strategic alignment underscores OTP Bank’s dedication towards a sustainable financial sector in Hungary.
Best bank for customer experience 2025: Erste Bank
Erste Bank has demonstrated commendable advances in the domain of customer experience, across varied demographics and service types.
In 2024, it significantly enhanced its digital engagement platform with the introduction of George Tips, FitZone, and Investment Tips. These features afforded customers highly personalised financial advice tailored to individual user profiles and needs.
Particularly notable was the launch of the George Junior app for users over 14. This innovative platform came equipped with parent-child features and a distinct user interface, aimed specifically at broadening banking accessibility and tailor-made service offerings for the younger demographic, thereby fostering financial literacy from an early age.
Moreover, the introduction of the Instant Cash product marked a substantial innovation in lending. This service allowed for immediate small loans with instant credit decisions, facilitating an efficient and seamless borrowing experience without the need for human intervention.
Usage statistics further underscore Erste Bank’s achievements; an impressive 79% of customers engaged with the George app/web on a monthly basis in 2024 – remarkably higher than the Central and Eastern Europe average. The bank also reported a year-on-year doubling of digital acquisition and onboarding, illustrating success in integrating digital tools into the traditional banking environment.
Additionally, the bank pioneered instant card usage and tokenisation, enabling clients to instantly access both credit and debit cards through the George app immediately after account set-up. This initiative not only streamlined the process but also enhanced security and convenience for new customers.
These strategic advancements by Erste Bank clearly highlight their leadership in improving customer experience in Hungary’s banking sector.
Best bank for research 2025: MBH Investment Bank
MBH Investment Bank has established itself as a leader in the realm of financial research in Hungary, significantly expanding and revitalising its offerings in 2024. Notably, the bank’s equity research team has grown from two to five members and has pioneered the use of a cutting-edge machine-learning model for stock selection, employing decision trees to enhance the accuracy and reliability of stock analysis.
In the same vein, MBH introduced an advisory team that has developed sophisticated models for asset class and mutual fund scoring, as well as a semi-automated back-testing tool. These tools are designed to provide nuanced insights and facilitate more informed investment decisions, further demonstrating the bank’s commitment to utilising advanced technology in financial advisory.
MBH also broke new ground with the launch of a short-term FX trading algorithm, based on big data and machine-learning technologies. This innovative tool, whose insights are made publicly available, underscores the bank’s dedication to transparency and its role in democratising complex trading strategies.
The performance of MBH’s new model portfolios, launched in April 2024, has been commendable, with returns ranging from 7.43% to 9.46% and volatilities between 2.85% and 5.58% by year-end. These figures not only reflect the effectiveness of the bank’s strategies but also its prowess in managing risk and volatility.
Finally, the introduction of the Market Pulse report, mutual fund planner, and a proprietary blog platform in 2024 has significantly enhanced research access and investor engagement, ensuring that clients and the broader financial community benefit from timely and relevant financial insights and analyses.
