Sándor Csányi, the 63 year old CEO of Hungary’s OTP Bank, is among the wealthiest people in the world, according to Forbes. Mr. Csányi’s net worth includes assets held in Singapore and this is what pushed the Hungarian businessman above the one billion dollar threshold to be profiled by Forbes as one of the world’s wealthiest people. Mr. Csányi’s net worth is now estimated at over US$ 1 billion. Forbes hoped to receive comment from Mr. Csányi, but the prominent CEO and businessman did not respond to their requests.
Mr. Csányi’s OTP Bank is by far the largest retail bank in Hungary and it’s also the largest financial institution in all of East/Central Europe, with branches in neighbouring Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine, as well as in Bulgaria, Montenegro and Russia. OTP Bank employs more than 36,000 people in the region and controls one quarter of the banking sector’s market share in Hungary.
Sándor Csányi, standing to the right of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, at a press conference.
Mr. Csányi, originally from relatively humble origins in rural Hungary, moved to Budapest at age 14 and after obtaining a PhD in 1980, went on to work as an economist for Hungary’s Department of State Revenue. He launched his banking sector career in 1986, when he received employment at the Hungarian Credit Bank. He has served as CEO and Chairman of OTP Bank since 1992. But it was truly after 1995, following OTP Bank’s privatization, that Mr. Csányi’s career took off, when he was able to remove himself from the day-to-day operations of the financial institution and focus on questions of broader strategic development.
The prominent banker was always quite conscious of building his political connections and these have undoubtedly helped to solidify his career and his bank’s lead position. Initially, Mr. Csányi had a close rapport with Socialist Prime Minister Gyula Horn (1994-1998), and with his Minister of Finance, Péter Medgyessy. According to an excellent essay published in the Magyar Narancs weekly, Mr. Csányi knew how to take advantage of the internal strife within the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP), during its time in government in the mid-nineties. At the time, the Hungarian state retained a 25% stake in the bank and a so-called “golden share,” which provided the government with additional weight on questions of OTP Bank’s strategic development. Mr. Csányi actually had a personal friendship with Mr. Medgyessy, then finance minister and later Prime Minister of Hungary (2002-2004), and one which stretched back to the eighties, when both economists worked as civil servants. The two men would go on hunting trips together.
But Mr. Csányi also had a friendship with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and one originating in the nineties. Politicians close to Fidesz began appearing in various positions within the OTP Bank hierarchy. Perhaps the most notable of these was Sándor Pinter, the Minister of Interior from 1998 to 2002, and again since 2010. Even Lajos Simicska, Mr. Orbán’s former college roommate and media magnate, had a brief stint within OTP Bank’s leadership. In 2010, the same year that Mr. Orbán returned to power, Mr. Csányi became President of the Hungarian Football Federation. As those who follow Hungarian politics closely will know, the Hungarian prime minister is a major soccer enthusiast and has pumped billions of forints in state funding into the sport and into the construction of stadiums.
Mr. Orbán, not too long ago, attempted to weaken Mr. Csányi’s economic and political influence in Hungary, despite their otherwise close rapport. Some of the Orbán government’s bank levies (special taxes) were not at all well received by Mr. Csányi. According to journalist Márton Galambos: “Sándor Csányi fights quietly and with determination. He can allow himself the luxury of losing some battles, in order to win the actual war. Both Ferenc Gyurcsány and Viktor Orbán attempted to curb his influence, but both prime ministers ended up bouncing off of him. Sándor Csányi is simply a state within a state. If his empire collapses, the whole country will suffer.”
Mr. Csányi, of couse, isn’t the first Hungarian to be profiled as one of the wealthiest people in the world by Forbes. That honour belongs to George Soros, the 27th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $23 billion.
