Auditors Praise the 250-Million-Euro Business Credit Line, but the Finance Ministry Was Up to 48 Working Days Late With the Money

The State Audit Office gave the Development Bank a positive assessment for the 250-million-euro credit line for private companies - the part of the Hungarian loan earmarked for business. According to the auditors, the bank acted in line with the law, its internal rules and the contracts "in all material respects". There is one remark, though, and it isn't aimed at the bank.

The Finance Ministry was between 10 and 48 working days late in paying out the tranches, even though the contract requires the money to arrive within 10 working days at most. The delays started with the fourth tranche, in May 2025, and kept going from there. The auditors warn this could slow down investments by companies waiting for the money. So the state offers cheap credit - and then keeps it in a drawer itself.

Where the money went

767 projects were approved, worth a total of about 14.26 billion denars, roughly 232 million euros, through 12 commercial banks. The terms really are generous: a fixed interest rate of 1.95%, repayment over up to 15 years, a grace period of up to three years and up to 10 million euros per borrower.

Small firms have the most projects, 455 or 59%, but got only about a quarter of the money, 3.57 billion denars. Large companies with 94 projects got 4.72 billion, and medium-sized ones with 171 projects 4.61 billion. The biggest share, 44% or 6.29 billion denars, went to manufacturing, followed by trade, transport, construction and hospitality.

A positive audit isn't a positive effect

The audit says the procedure followed the rules. It doesn't say how many new jobs this money brought. And labour market data for the second quarter of 2026 aren't exactly inspiring: employment grew just 1% year on year, while the number of informally employed people jumped to 101,022 - practically one in seven workers in the country is working off the books.

More than 230 million euros of cheap money for business, and the grey economy is growing. If that's not a question for the government, what is? The next report worth waiting for isn't about the bank's compliance - it's about how many of those 767 projects produced an employment contract instead of an envelope of cash.