Top Coporate Financial Executives In Hungary 2022 Sample

Top

Corporate

Financial EXECUTIVES In Hungary 2022

The most influential corporate finance executives in the Hungarian economy

Content

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CORPORATE FINANCE

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COVID-19 Lifts Financial Services Sector, Motivates Further Improvements

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Cash is Still King in Hungary, but the Price is High The Long and Winding Road to Hungarian Financial Literacy

Corporate

Financial EXECUTIVES

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In Hungary 2022

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Despite Pandemic, IIB Continues to Follow its Growth Path, Widen its Loan Portfolio

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Tax-related Administrative Burdens Boost Need for Advisory Services

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Bence Katona

54

Zoltán Lambert

56

Tamás Lőcsei

58

Philippe Michalak Budzan

60

István Nemecz

62

CORPORATE FINANCIAL EXECUTIVE BIOGRAPHIES

31

Károly Radnai

64

János Babos

32

Botond Rencz

66

Gábor Beer

34

Júlia Sohajda

68

Erzsébet Bergmann, Péter Bergmann

36

Ágnes Svoób

70

Kálmán Faur

38

Levente Zsembery

72

Roland Felkai

40

Györgyi Ferencz

42

CORPORATE FINANCIAL LISTINGS

75

Judit Gittinger

44

Tax Consultants

76

György Herczku

46

Accounting Firms

79

Marcell Horváth

48

Corporate Finance Consultants

83

Judit Jancsa-Pék

50

Stockbrokers

85

Zsolt Kalocsai

52

Venture Capital Firms

86

Published in 2022 • EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Robin Marshall • CONTRIBUTORS: Annamária Bálint, Christian Keszthelyi, Robin Marshall, Bálint Szőnyi • LISTS: BBJ Research (research@bbj.hu) • NEWS AND PRESS RELEASES: Should be submitted in English to news@bbj.hu • LAYOUT: Zsolt Pataki • PUBLISHER: Tamás Botka, Business Publishing Services Kft. • Address: Madách Trade Center, 1075 Budapest, Madách Imre út 13-14. • Telephone +36 (1) 398-0344, Fax +36 (1) 398-0345, • ADVERTISING: AMS Services Kft. • CEO: Balázs Román • SALES: sales@bbj.hu, csilla.lengyel@bbj.hu • CIRCULATION AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: circulation@bbj.hu • www.budapestbusinessjournal.com • ISSN 2786-3999

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TOP CORPORATE FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES

Introduction I am, therefore, full of admiration for those blessed with a "gift" for numbers. I vividly remember interviewing a mathematician who talked of seeing a pure, aesthetically pleasing logic in an equation, as dense a "language" to me as Greek, Russian or Sanskrit, and even more impenetrable than Hungarian given the lack of a Latin alphabet. Those squiggly characters were not open to interpretation in the way words are, this mathematician reasoned; they just were.

Top Commercial Financial Executives is our tribute to those who ply their trade in numbers, the accountants, bookkeepers, tax analysts, commercial bankers and financial officers. We can't successfully do business without any of them. We introduced the "Top" brand a few years back to introduce the leading expat CEOs in Hungary, in part because we think the human element may well be the single most crucial aspect of business life. Since then, we have introduced publications dedicated to the legal, healthcare, real estate and now financial sectors.

We hope you enjoy getting to know some of the leading personalities from Hungary's financial world.

I have long believed that, while you can teach the basics of most subjects to just about anyone, there are those who have an innate aptitude to do something, a natural gift, if you will. True polymaths are rare, if not unheard of, experts less so. Back in the dark ages, when I was choosing my A-level subjects to study at secondary school, the system had a built-in prejudice that made it theoretically impossible for arts students also to study science subjects. I say theoretically because I inadvertently broke that daft system by selecting computer science (then a brand new field) alongside history and geography. I went on to pass all three.

But even though I had proven that theory was false because it was applied by the school too broadly, I did think, and still do, that some people have more natural talent in certain areas than others. We can't all be superstar sports athletes, for example, and we all know there are leaders for whom you would march through a brick wall, while there are others you wouldn't follow to the bar.

I'm not immodest enough to say I have a "gift" for words, but I have been lucky that I have always found working with them relatively easy. Numbers, though, well, that's another story altogether. I simply don't "see" numbers the same way I do words. I'm not sure if this is a thing, but I have wondered if I might be numerically dyslexic.

Robin Marshall MBE, Editor-in-chief Budapest Business Journal

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Artwork by Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock.com

Corporate Finance

COVID-19 Lifts Financial Services Sector, Motivates Further Improvements As the world grapples with the new Omicron variant of COVID-19 and debates begin about the fourth dose (or second booster), Hungary’s financial services sector is still adapting to this new normal and is enjoying its benefits.

The pandemic placed a laser focus on the industry, especially considering home and hybrid work scenarios and a previously unseen level of digitalization. solutions such as video communication and automated contact centers, their priorities have consolidated today.

“The only visible difference is that most colleagues want more home office time than before,” Somogyi explains.

The pandemic has also jolted the tax and financial advisory market toward positive trends. “Digitalization has given a strong boost to the sector. Changes sparked by the pandemic also transformed advisory methods; new tools have been introduced. The transaction market has become also very much focused on digital and information technology targets,” Károly Radnai, managing partner at Andersen in Hungary, tells the BBJ. Teams in the financial services sector maintained intensive online relationships with clients, even before the pandemic upturned the way we work. Digital and online systems that

By Christian Keszthelyi The environment created by the coronavirus pandemic did not produce new trends so much as it accelerated existing ones in the Hungarian financial services sector and, indeed, globally, market players tell the Budapest Business Journal.

“There was a shock that made banks revalue their loan portfolios, then the governmental intervention [the moratorium] came, which trends were coupled with a new flush of free money. Now the dust has settled; we do not see dramatic changes,” Imre Somogyi, director of consulting and financial institutions at PwC Hungary, says.

While chief executive officers responded to the outbreak by envisaging inevitable future giga-investments into digital

“Digitalization has given a strong boost to the sector. Changes sparked by the pandemic also transformed advisory methods; new tools have been introduced. The transaction market has become also very much focused on digital and information technology targets.”

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Cash is Still King in Hungary, but the Price is High Hungarian households are disposing of ever-larger assets, but a disturbingly high proportion of savings are stuck in cash and zero-interest bank deposits.

On the other hand, it seems even skyrocketing prices can’t deter the public from betting on their favorite investment target: real estate. At the current rate,

Photo by IoanaB / Shutterstock.com

Hungary is unlikely to become a stock market investor nation anytime soon.

By Bálint Szőnyi There’s an ad for a Thai bank that tells the heartbreaking tale of a young local boy. He dreams of becoming an astronaut, and to help him accomplish that goal, he decides to save up for a telescope. He resists all kinds

of material temptations, from ice cream to toys, but by the time he finally rushes to the store with his hard-earned savings, the price of the telescope has gone up by 30%.

You can’t start teaching kids early enough about the deteriorating effects of inflation. It is less understandable why masses of adults ignore it, with Hungary no exception.

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TOP CORPORATE FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES

Photo by Varga Jozsef Zoltan / Shutterstock.com

The Long and Winding Road to Hungarian Financial Literacy

The COVID-induced economic crisis revealed yet again the importance of solid knowledge to make informed financial decisions. A Hungarian government strategy launched in 2017 aims to improve financial literacy on a massive scale, but there is still a long way to go.

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Despite Pandemic, IIB Continues to Follow its Growth Path, Widen its Loan Portfolio

Anna Lvova

The Budapest Business Journal sat

By Robin Marshall

down with Anna Lvova, head of external affairs and communications at the Budapest-based International Investment Bank, to discuss its reception and role in Hungary, work during the pandemic, and future goals, among other things.

BBJ: The International Investment Bank is the only such body headquartered in Hungary. Why did you choose Budapest?

Anna Lvova: Ever since its return to the IIB as a shareholder back in 2015, Hungary has been a very active member of the bank. By that time, the relaunch of our institution had been ongoing for three years and many achievements were already visible. The institution had obtained credit ratings, entered debt capital markets, started to build a loan portfolio and was developing at a rather fast pace in all of its activities.

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TOP CORPORATE FINANCIAL EXECUTIVES

Tax-related Administrative Burdens Boost Need for Advisory Services Companies in Hungary are facing significant administrative burdens relating to their taxation. Compliance with the rules and regulations is tough. While digitalization is helping processes, it is simultaneously complicating the administrative duties of businesses, whether they deal with online data provision requirements, manage voucher-relating taxation, or end up with a tax-evading business partner.

By Christian Keszthelyi

Mihály Harcos

As Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration continues to digitalize its organization apace, companies are finding themselves requested to file ever more data with the tax authority’s online system. EY Hungary, one of the Big 4 consultancies in the country, warns businesses that they may face fines of up to HUF 500,000 if they make errors in the data upload to the digital system, or miss deadlines for providing the authority with data.

In the same way that ignorance of the law is no defense against breaking it, technological unpreparedness for failing to comply with the authority’s data collection is no longer an excuse that will help companies avoid fines.

However, EY Hungary notes that numerous software-based solutions are available today to assist companies with compulsory compliance.

The successful digitalization at the tax authority over the past several years has led to higher expectations for taxpayers, and companies, to provide NAV with tax-related information. This approach helps the administration in targetting official checks better, which essentially leads to more efficient risk management in the national tax picture.

Companies can turn these administrative musts into benefits, however. EY Hungary notes that companies can use the data accumulated in the tax authority’s online, real-time invoice reporting system for corporate analysis and business intelligence reporting. If companies decide to leverage this data, their business operations can become more streamlined and efficient.

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Executive Biographies

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Corporate Financial Listings

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