Hungary: a regional economic and financial centre
OMFIF welcome remarks
Welcome address
Session I: The macroeconomic outlook in
central and eastern Europe
Session II: Investment opportunities in
Hungary and central eastern Europe: asset
managers
Session III: Developments in domestic
financing and capital markets
Session IV: Financing the green transition
Session V: Fintech and a digital future in
central and eastern Europe
5
Thought-provoking sessions
20+
Insightful speakers
100+
Attendees
1
Impactful event
The next few years present a significant opportunity for Hungary to establish its credentials as an economic and financial centre, both regionally and more widely. This OMFIF conference in Budapest brought together a group of leading asset owners, investment managers, policy-makers, practitioners, bankers and other financial services providers with speakers from the official sector. They provided the international financial community with unique insights into regional macroeconomic developments and the potential to invest in and via Hungary.
The conference forms part of a wider project, ‘Unlocking Hungary’s post-pandemic growth potential’. It also comprised interviews with Magyar Nemzeti Bank, Hungary’s finance ministry and investors, as well as two virtual roundtables on 4 October and 7 November. The project culminates in a research report released in December 2023.
Key themes
Macroeconomic outlook and implications for monetary and fiscal policies
Opportunities for asset managers and other investors
Developments in domestic financing and capital markets
The role of CEE central banks in driving the green transition
Fintech and a digital future in the CEE region
Speakers
Martin Blum
Martin Blum is head of desk strategy and capital markets development at Raiffeisen Bank International. He leads Raiffeisen’s desk strategy which provides emerging European strategy to the group’s institutional clients as well as heading capital markets development. Prior to this, he headed UniCredit’s emerging market economic research and strategy.
Mate Brezovszki
Mate Brezovszki is founder and chief executive officer of Perfinal. Perfinal is the core banking solution provider for Magyar Nemzeti Bank’s live retail central bank digital currency pilot. His transition from institutional banking to innovative finance is marked by experiments across blockchain, decentralised finance and scalable financial solutions.
György Éder
György Éder has nearly three decades of experience in money and capital markets and portfolio management. He is a founding member of the Hungarian Chapter of the CFA Institute. Between 1994 and 2007, he worked as a portfolio manager, Head of department and then Deputy head of department in the Department of Money and Foreign Exchange Markets of the Hungarian National Bank, and was a member of the Asset and Liability Committee. Prior to this, he was Head of trading in the Capital Markets department of Raiffeisen Bank Hungary. He joined OTP Alapkezelő Zrt. as strategic adviser and is now the CEO of the asset management company.
László Fazekas
László Fazekas is deputy chief executive officer and chief financial officer at MVM. Prior to this role, he was group controlling director at MVM as well as CEO, CFO and member of the board of directors at MVM CEEnergy Zrt.
Bálint Fischer
Bálint Fischer is chief business development officer at Dorsum. His duties involve wealth management and helping financial institutions in their digital transformation in this domain. Fischer has been working as a business-side decision maker for banks, brokerages and investment management firms, with an interest to innovate with the latest fintech solutions.
Christopher Garnett
Christopher Garnett is senior adviser at OMFIF. He also runs his the consultancy ChuteCourt Asesores. He is the principal permanent adviser for the UK to the executive president of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration. He worked for Euromoney from 1988-2016. He was the director of their conferences business and a group executive committee member and remained consultant to the business for five years.
Mihály Geiszbühl
Mihály Geiszbühl is head of capital markets at Erste Bank Hungary. He is also executive director of Erste Investment and supervisory board member of Erste Mortgage Bank and Erste Securities Polska. Prior to this, he worked for Erste Group Bank AG as head of group corporate sales of capital markets, covering the capital markets sales activity in the CEE region.
Geoff Gottlieb
Geoff Gottlieb is senior resident representive of the regional office for central, eastern and southeastern Europe at the International Monetary Fund. His previous positions at the IMF include mission chief for Mongolia and Myanmar and senior economist on China and Greece. He has also held positions at Fortress Investment Group, Goldman Sachs and US Department of Treasury.
Caroline Grady
Caroline Grady is head of emerging market research at Macro Hive. She was previously a senior emerging market economist at Deutsche Bank, where she covered central Europe and other countries within the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. She has also worked as a leader writer at the Financial Times writing the FT View on various macro themes.
Anna Grochowska
Anna Grochowska is Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, Directorate General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union. Anna co-manages the work of the team dealing with national financial systems. She leads financial sector country surveillance for selected countries and she supervises the work on the European Semester and the design and implementation of national Recovery and Resilience Plans. This work aims to maintain macro-financial stability across the EU and to support investor confidence and growth. The team cooperates extensively with other EU institutions such as the European Central Bank, the European Stability Mechanism, European Supervisory Authorities, the International Monetary Fund, national authorities as well as private sector stakeholders.
Since joining the European Commission in 2011, Anna has worked on monitoring financial stability and financial sector policy developments in the area of capital markets, sustainable finance; non-performing loans; open strategic autonomy. Earlier, she worked as Senior Auditor on banking and insurance related projects.
Radovan Jelasity
Radován Jelasity is chairman and chief executive officer of Erste Bank in Hungary. He is also president of the Hungarian Banking Association and previously served as governor of the National Bank of Serbia. He started his banking career at Deutsche Bank, where he worked as area manager for central and eastern Europe.
Ferenc Kementzey
Ferenc Kementzey is deputy chief executive officer and head of corporates, markets and investment banking at Raiffeisen Bank. He was also head of large corporate banking at Bank Austria Creditanstalt Rt, head of large corporate business of HVB Bank Rt and led the corporate sales of Unicredit Hungary.
Pawel Kowalewski
Zoltán Kuráli
Zoltán Kurali is chief executive officer of government debt management agency, ÁKK. He was chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank in Hungary and preceding his departure from Deutsche Bank, he was the head of financing and solutions group covering institutional, corporate and sovereign clients in central eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa.
David Lodge
David Lodge is head of the euro area external sector and euro adoption division at the European Central Bank. The division monitors developments in European Union countries in central and eastern Europe. Lodge also previously worked in various roles in the International Directorate of the ECB and Bank of England.
David Marsh
David Marsh is Chairman and Co-Founder of OMFIF. Before starting at OMFIF in late 2009, he worked for City merchant bank Robert Fleming, corporate finance boutique Hawkpoint, German management consultancy Droege and London investment firm London & Oxford. Marsh took over the chairmanship from John Plender on 1 January 2018 having been Managing Director since 2014. He moved to a non-executive role following John Orchard’s appointment as Chief Executive effective 1 January 2020.
Reiner Martin
Reiner Martin is executive director at the National Bank of Slovakia. He was previously deputy head of the macro-financial linkages division at the European Central Bank and research adviser at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank. More recently, his work focuses on financial stability topics, including macroprudential policy, non-performing loan management and resolution.
Tomomitsu Maruta
Tomomitsu Victor Maruta is sustainable finance associate officer of capital markets and finance directorate at European Investment Bank. He works on developing the bank’s green and sustainability bonds and their gradual alignment with the European Union taxonomy regulation and the upcoming EU Green Bond Standard.
Kaan Nazli
Kaan Nazli is senior portfolio manager and economist for emerging markets debt at Neuberger Berman. He has previous positions in ING Investment Management and Medley Global Advisors, where he worked on macro research and sovereign debt credit views. He also worked as a research analyst for Eurasia Group where he advised financial institutions on central and eastern Europe.
Chris Ostrowski
Chris Ostrowski is chief executive officer and founder of SODA. He leads in order to create and deliver real life use cases for central banks and other public finance institutions as they test central bank digital currencies and blockchain technology. Ostrowski also helped launch OMFIF's Digital Monetary Institute as an independent platform for convening central banks on digital payments, distributed ledger technology and blockchain.
David Papp
David Papp is head of sustainable finance policy at Maygar Nemzeti Bank. In this role, he leads a team in accelerating Hungary’s green financing and increasing financial institutions’ awareness and resilience towards climate risks. Previously, he worked several years in development banking, where his area of expertise was financing renewable energy projects in emerging economies.
Taylor Pearce
Taylor Pearce is senior economist at the OMFIF Economic and Monetary Policy Institute. She contributes to a range of research, reports and commentaries on monetary and macroeconomic themes. She participated in the international parliamentary scholarship programme at the German parliament, during which she interned for the chairman of the EU affairs committee.
Anastasia Petraki
Anastasia Petraki is head of sustainability for BlackRock Germany, Austria and eastern Europe. Prior to this, she was sustainability investment director at Schroders Investment Management and head of policy research, developing thought leadership research on policy and regulation in asset management, sustainability and stewardship and retail investor participation.
Maral Shamloo
Maral Shamloo is managing director in fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. She is responsible for sovereign economic research on the emerging market debt team. She was also a principal economist at the Bank of Canada working at the financial markets department, International Monetary Fund as mission chief for Grenada and country economist for Argentina and Greece.
Tomas Slacik
Tomas Slacik is senior economist in the central, eastern and southeastern Europe section at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank’s economics analysis and research department. He has also worked for the European Central Bank, European Investment Bank and has previously carried out analytical work on early warning indicators for financial crises, inflation, investment and structural issues.
Anikó Szombati
Anikó Szombati is executive director and chief digital officer at Magyar Nemzeti Bank. She is responsible for promoting digital transformation in the financial sector as well as within the central bank, including the implementation of cutting-edge technologies and research on central bank digital currencies. Szombati is also a member of the Financial Stability Council.
Tobias Tenner
Tobias Tenner is head of digitalisation and associate director of the Association of German Banks. He focuses on tokenisation, decentralised finance, artificial intelligence and more. Prior to this, he leaded as a strategy consultant for a big four digital transformation project, worked as a consultant in the capital market area and previously as a broker at the Berlin Stock Exchange.
Olaf Toelke
Olaf Tölke is managing director and head of corporate ratings at Scope Ratings GmbH. He is responsible for corporate ratings. Prior to this role, he worked for S&P as senior director for ratings-coordination of the global pharma sector. His earlier professional career also includes equity research positions at AXA Investment Managers as well as at Merrill Lynch.
Peter Töreki
Peter Töreki is head of group funding at MOL Group. In this role, he is responsible for the external funding of the Group, handling an €6bn financing portfolio. Before his career in the MOL Group treasury, he worked at MKB Bank as risk controller and then at MSCI as market and liquidity risk controller and then asset risk modeller.
Mihály Varga
Mihály Varga is minister of finance of Hungary. Prior to this role, he was political state secretary of the ministry of finance, then state secretary leading the prime minister's office. He also served in several other positions in the Hungarian government such as minister for national economy and deputy prime minister for economic policy.
Balázs Vinnai
Balázs Vinnai is chairman of IVSZ, Hungarian Association of Digital Companies. Vinnai has co-founded several start-ups, including Codecool, a leading programming school in central and eastern Europe, and Finshape, a regional firm specialising in digital solutions for the banking sector. He is also chief adviser to the chairman at MBH Bank.
Barnabás Virág
Barnabás Virág is deputy governor of Magyar Nemzeti Bank. He is responsible for monetary policy, financial stability and international relations. Prior to his appointment as deputy governor, he served as executive director of the MNB, where he was responsible for monetary policy and economic analysis. Before this role, he was director of the MNB responsible for economic analysis and prior to this, an analyst. He was also an analyst at Hungary’s ministry of finance.
Matthias Zeinitzer
Matthias Zeinitzer is a member of the iShares & Wealth EEA Team based in Vienna. His main focus is the business development in Central Eastern Europe including Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and Croatia. Matthias covers all three segments - asset owners, asset managers and wealth/retail - in all 6 countries. Key accomplishments of the iSW CEE team have been the first-time registration of ETFs in SK and PL, the harmonization of the active product offering in CZ SK, PL and HU as well as the strong client and asset growth.
Prior to joining BlackRock, Matthias Zeinitzer has worked for IQAM Invest, a quant asset management boutique based in Austria, for more than 10 years. There he was first based in the asset management team where he managed more than EUR 1bn of AUM in multi asset and equity strategies. He helped to develop new quant driven asset management strategies and portfolio optimization models. He was mainly involved in the integration of ESG into the core equity products. Since 2015 he simultaneously worked as relationship manager and covered the top 10 financial consulting companies in Germany. Before his departure he was heading the product management department with 5 direct reports.
Agenda
David Marsh, Chairman, OMFIF
Mihály Varga, Minister of Finance, Government of Hungary
Barnabás Virág, Deputy Governor, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
- The macroeconomic outlook and implications for monetary and fiscal policies
(Hungary, CEE and euro area overviews - Policy responses to rising inflation and interest rates and the consequences
for financial markets and financial stability - Geopolitical developments including the impact of the Russia’s invasion of
Ukraine on energy and security
Keynote speaker:
Marta Kightley, First Deputy Governor, Narodowy Bank Polski
Speakers:
Geoff Gottlieb, Senior Resident Representative, Regional Office for Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, International Monetary Fund
Radován Jelasity, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Erste Bank Hungary
Pawel Kowalewski, Senior Advisor, Narodowy Bank Polski
David Lodge, Head of the Euro Area External Sector & Euro Adoption Division, Directorate General Economics, European Central Bank
Reiner Martin, Executive Director, National Bank of Slovakia
Tomas Slacik, Senior Economist, Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe Section, Economics Analysis and Research Department, Oesterreichische Nationalbank
Moderator: Taylor Pearce, Senior Economist, OMFIF
- Assessing investments in emerging market debt and credit asset categories
- Recalibrating strategic asset allocations in a volatile environment
- The evolution of portfolio diversification and risk management strategies
- Equities and alternative assets classes: real estate, infrastructure and private
markets
Speakers:
György Éder, Chief Executive Officer, OTP Fund Management
Caroline Grady, Head, Emerging Markets Research, Macro Hive
Kaan Nazli, Senior Portfolio Manager, Economist, Emerging Markets Debt, Neuberger Berman
Maral Shamloo, Manging Director, Fixed Income and Liquidity Solutions, Goldman Sachs Asset Management
Matthias Zeinitzer, Director, iShares & Wealth CEE, BlackRock
Moderator: Christopher Garnett, Senior Adviser, OMFIF
- Developments in Hungarian and European capital markets
- Addressing banking sector fragmentation at the national and European level
- Moving beyond bank financing for domestic corporates and SMEs
- Enhancing domestic investor capacity and retail investment
Speakers:
Martin Blum, Head of Desk Strategy and Capital Markets Development, Raiffeisen Bank International
Mihály Geiszbühl, Head of Treasury, Erste Bank Hungary
Anna Grochowska, Deputy Head, National Financial Systems, Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, European Commission
Zoltán Kurali, Chief Exectuive Officer, Government Debt Management Agency, AKK
Olaf Toelke, Managing Director, Head of Corporate Ratings, Scope Ratings
Peter Töreki, Head of Group Funding, Treasury, MOL Group
Moderator: Christopher Garnett, Senior Adviser, OMFIF
- ESG standards and international cooperation
- Bolstering transition finance and crowding in private investment
- Developing green, social and sustainability bond issuance
- The role of the public sector in driving the green transition
Speakers:
László Fazekas, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, MVM
Ferenc Kementzey, Deputy Chief Exectutive Officer; Head of Corporates, Markets and Investment Banking, Raiffeisen Bank Hungary
Tomomitsu Maruta, Sustainability Finance Associate Officer, European Investment Bank
David Papp, Head of Sustainable Finance Policy, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Anastasia Petraki, Head of Sustainability for Germany, Austria, Germanspeaking
Switzerland and Eastern Europe, BlackRock
Moderator: Taylor Pearce, Senior Economist, OMFIF
- Digital assets and the future of capital markets in the CEE region
- The emerging role of fintech in innovating financial services
- The implications of CBDCs, including the digital euro, for monetary policy, financial intermediation, and financial stability
Speakers:
Bálint Fischer, Chief Business Development Officer, Dorsum
Anikó Szombati, Executive Director, Chief Digital Officer, Magyar Nemzeti Bank
Tobias Tenner, Head of Digitalisation, Associate Director, Association of German Banks
Balázs Vinnai, Chairman, IVSZ (Hungarian Association of ICT Companies)
Moderator: Chris Ostrowski, Chief Exectuive Officer, Sovereign Official Digitial
Association
Christopher Garnett, Senior Adviser, OMFIF
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