How sound are the Hungarian Banks

I hope to shortly complete the purchase of an apartment in Budapest. Now that the currency is in my favour I thought it might be a good idea to move my money over to a Hungarian bank, but read recently that one of the Hungarian banks might be next to go under and that the banks there don’t have the same guarantees that the banks have here. Anyone got any views on this matter.
Sea warrior

hi im not too sure on the safety of the Hungarian banks right now but i have an account with the raiffeisen bank i think its an Austrian bank and were voted one of the best rated banks in Hungary. Its got a good online service and if you go for its dynamic package it costs 600Hufs to run per month. The thing is right now the rate is good for you to transfer money over to Hungary as the forint has weakened considerably in the past few days and it will cost less to pay for you're apartment. I hope some of this info is of interest to you even though i don't know much about the banking system over there

Thanks Seanieboy, I opened an account with CIB Bank two years ago but have never used it. Like all banks world wide you just can't be sure who's next to under. I'll check out the bank you mentioned.

Citibank are also in Budapest.They are exposed to the current crisis but they would seem a sound bet.

Deposits in Hungarian banks also have state guarantees. HU banks here have made extremely high profits over the past few years and are in very good economic shape. They were always stringent about lending and in general, don't have bad loans on their books.

However, 80% of the banking system is owned by foreign companies, so it's difficult to know for sure what may or may not happen, similar to most countries at the moment.

A bi-product of the current global economic crisis is that FX loans are becoming more difficult to get, as banks themselves are finding it harder to get access to EUR/CHF credit.

interestingly, Citibank HU are actually now regulated by the Irish regulator

It appears that the Hungary had to ask for help from the effects of the credit crunch on Thursday this week:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2008/1017/1224108326177.html

Thanks Folks, I have been in contact with the seller yesterday and they now say the place is ready for hand over. I had paid 30% down on this apartment some years ago and if I had pulled out I would have lost out. I might need someone to snag list it for me as I hadn’t planned on going over till the end of November. Does anyone know someone that can do that sort of job?