Budapest, 15 July 2020 – This year has brought about an unexpected situation in the functioning of the world including the dynamics of the economy. Actors in the financial sector immediately reacted to the slowdown in order to help domestic enterprises overcome this transitional period.

Stabile growth in recent years and the continuous strengthening of corporate sector financing has provided one of the important bases of the prompt measures taken by the banking system. This year again, the partner institutions, the Hungarian Export-Import Bank Plc. (Eximbank) and the Hungarian Export Credit Insurance Plc. (MEHIB) have awarded their financial cooperation partners on the basis of the joint financial achievements and results in 2019.

 The cooperation of the domestic commercial banking system and Exim is of outstanding importance in the performance of the Hungarian economy as nearly 90% of the GDP comes from export and the entire supply chain linked to export in several layers reaches even the smallest enterprises. Providing efficient financial services to these enterprises requires not only a well-structured product range but also a partnership approach in every case. Two thirds of the credit placed today reaches EXIM’s clients through refinanced commercial banks that directly deliver the resources provided by us to the economic actors. As it is our cooperation and joint reflection that year by year strengthen the financing of the export value chain, we deem it very important that - following the tradition of the past years - we express our recognition to our partners in the present challenging times even though we cannot celebrate together as usually, emphasized Gergely Jákli, CEO, Chairman of the Board of Directors at EXIM Hungary when speaking about this year’s awards.

This year, the awards are presented to the financial partners in six categories recognizing their successful work performed in 2019. Raiffeisen Bank Plc. - that allocated the highest volume of credit provided by Eximbank to the corporate sector - has won the Bank of the Year 2019 award. MKB Bank Plc. was recognised as the SME Financer of the Year 2019 for supporting the representatives of the SME sector with EXIM credits and granting the highest financing volume to the SME segment in 2019. Budapest Leasing Plc. won the Leasing Company of the Year 2019 award for the most outstanding achievement in executing refinanced leasing transactions for the second time in a row. Takarékbank Plc. received the MEHIB 2019 prize for the application of export receivables insurance services and thus for providing financial services to Hungarian exporters at international standard.  UniCredit Bank Hungary Plc. won the EXIM 2019 award for managing the highest volume refinanced EXIM portfolio at the end of 2019 as a result of its achievement during the previous years. The Urbán Zoltán individual award established to honour the memory of the chief executive officer of EXIM who passed away in 2017 in was presented to László Sára, head of Subsidized Finances Department, Budapest Bank for his individual performance and personal contribution to the successes of the refinanced instruments of EXIM.

The memorial plaques were presented by Gergely Jákli to György Zolnai, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Plc; József Vida, chairman-CEO of Takarékbank Plc; dr. Ádám Balog, President and CEO of MKB Bank Plc; Balázs Tóth, Chairman and CEI of UniCredit Bank Hungary Plc; dr. Koppány Lélfai, President and CEO of Budapest Bank; Attila Medgyesi, CEO of Budapest Lízing and László Sára, head of the Subsidized Finances Department of Budapest Bank. Cooperation with commercial banks and other financial institutions, their activity, their colleagues handling corporate customer relations and their sales network contribute significantly to the achievements and endeavours of EXIM. The experiences of working with them will also be incorporated into the three compensation programs of EXIM whereby we can respond quickly and effectively to the present situation. The headline target of these programs is to maintain and continue commercial bank lending. Thus, I am on the belief that – although the circumstances have changed – the joint compensation program already under way will prove to be successful, said the CEO, Chairman of the Board of Directors at EXIM Hungary.