The CE3 currencies have outperformed much of the emerging-market FX complex through recent carry unwinds – perhaps surprisingly, given the relative popularity of these currencies as receivers on account of high domestic policy rates.

Despite the cross-border growth of Hungary’s OTP Bank and the regional potential of Romania’s Banca Transilvania, banking in central and eastern Europe is increasingly a national game.

Strong fundamentals, generous Covid support and timely digital banking regulation mean that Hungary’s banks are in good shape for 2021.

Loan growth can return to double digits in second half of 2020, says deputy chief executive.

The country’s risk scores have lagged its central European neighbours since the financial crisis. Is overspending in the mid 2000s entirely to blame, or should the Fidesz government take some responsibility?

As part of Euromoney's 50th anniversary coverage, we profile some of the biggest names that we interviewed for our May CEE focus.

Herbert Stepic joined Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich (RZB) in 1973. In 1978, he took over the group’s international banking division and from 1986 led its expansion into emerging Europe. He stepped down as chief executive of RZB’s legal successor Raiffeisen Bank International in 2013.

András Simor became chief executive of Creditanstalt Securities in Budapest in 1989. He was chairman of CA-IB from 1997 to 1998 and head of Deloitte Hungary from 2003 until being appointed governor of the Hungarian central bank in 2007. Since October 2014, he has served as CFO at the EBRD. He will retire from the bank in May this year.

Can the combination of core banking system replacement and a pioneering fintech programme help re-privatized lender MKB Bank leapfrog its rivals in the Hungarian market in the race for technological supremacy?

Will Romania go the way of Hungary when it comes to the independence of its monetary authority?

An interview with the deputy president of the Hungarian National Bank.