Hungary's central bank Governor Gyorgy Matolcsy believes the local market can only accommodate up to six large banks in the long term, Reuters reported, citing novekedes.hu.
"In an international comparison, the domestic bank system operates with fairly high costs and is expensive," Matolcsy said.
"One form of boosting efficiency is consolidation. Therefore, I see scope for certain domestic institutions to merge in the future."
Large banks in Hungary include OTP Bank Nyrt., Belgian KBC Group NV's local unit K&H, Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International AG and Erste Group Bank AG and Italian UniCredit SpA and Intesa Sanpaolo SpA.