Hungary’s central bank instructs banks on retail borrower repayment moratorium

The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) on Wednesday said it is instructing banks to introduce a repayment moratorium for all retail borrowers until the end of 2020 because of the impact of the coronavirus.

If lenders fail to go ahead with the moratorium, the NBH said it would ask the government to implement the measure by decree.

The central bank also instructed lenders to reduce annual percentage rates on personal loans to a level no higher than five percentage points over the base rate (0.90 percent).

Days earlier, the NBH instructed banks to introduce a repayment moratorium for all businesses.