“The headquarters of the International Investment Bank is moving to the Hungarian capital”, Minister of Finance Mihály Varga announced, reporting on the unanimous decision brought by the financial institution’s Board of Governors at its session on 4 December, which also gave the Bank’s President a mandate to conclude the related agreement.

The Bank’s Budapest headquarters is expected to open in the second half of 2019, and according to plan the whole headquarters will be moving to Hungary within a period of two-three years.

“Budapest is a dynamically developing international business and financial hub, as also clearly indicated by the fact that in addition to significant international commercial banks, an important international development institution will now also have its headquarters in Hungary”, Mr. Varga underlined. As he explained, the direct presence of the Bank, which is already active on the Hungarian market, will further expand the range of financial resources available to Hungarian enterprises, and further reinforce Budapest’s role as a Central European financial hub.

“The moving of the International Investment Bank (IIB) to Budapest could also have a significant positive effect on the financial institution’s operations”, the Finance Minister said, commenting the decision, highlighting the fact that the move could improve the Bank’s embeddedness within the European Union’s economic system and further increase opportunities for cooperation with other financial institutions.

As he explained: member states primarily expect the moving of the headquarters to Budapest to result in a major improvement in the bank’s competitiveness and development opportunities. “This could also manifest itself in the further increase in the IIB’s credit rating”, pointed out the Minister, according to whom this is reinforced by the fact that Fitch Ratings raised the bank’s credit rating from “BBB” to “BBB+” on 22 November. In its detailed explanation, the credit rating agency highlighted the fact that the financial institution’s move to Budapest is expected to further improve the bank’s image.

(Ministry of Finance)