Budapest Bank, a unit of GE Money, has been named Hungary’s Bank of the Year for 2010 by trade journal The Banker, a member of the Financial Times group.
Budapest Bank’s ratio of non-performing loans more than doubled to 9.54pc in 2009, but lower costs lifted the bank’s profit by 7.5pc, The Banker said.
“We have had to learn how to work differently. We spent more time supporting customers with financial difficulties, helping them get back on track. We restructured our activities to reduce costs to offset lower growth and higher delinquency. We readdressed how we fund ourselves, given the previously high loan-to-deposit ratio of the Hungarian banking sector. We also focused on communicating the reasons for change to our organisation, given the years of consistent success achieved through growth,” CEO Sean Morrissey told the paper.