In the history of banking integration, triple mergers are quite rare. Even the merger of two large banks could pose significant problems in terms of reconciliation of policies, reorganizing, dealing with cultural differences, or firing people to eliminate duplication- but the biggest difficulty is IT.
This merger was a very fast process. Magyar Bankholding (MBH) Zrt. started its effective operation on December 15, 2020, after the owners of the three former credit institutions (MKB, Budapest Bank, Takarékbank) transferred their bank shares to the joint holding company with the approval of the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB). In March 2021, the governing bodies of MBH adopted a five-year strategy for the merger of the member banks, which gave the three credit institutions only two years to complete the merger.
Technically, the process was divided into two steps. The first step, the legal merger of Budapest Bank and MKB Bank, was completed on March 31, 2022, with the merged credit institution temporarily operating under the name MKB Bank Nyrt. MKB Bank then took over the management functions of the Magyar Bankholding Group on April 29, 2022, and Magyar Bankholding ceased to be a financial holding company thereafter.
On April 30, 2023, the merger of MKB Bank Nyrt. and Takarékbank Zrt. was completed, and on May 1, a new large bank, MBH Bank Nyrt. was established – the number two player in the domestic market
The latest announcements of the bank show that the technical and IT transition related to the merger has been successfully completed, with the exciting milestones of the first opening and closing. The first closing of the week was successful. As a result, services of MBH Bank have been running smoothly since May 1, and since the morning of May 2, branches have been open as usual. However, the full IT integration, which is of course the most difficult part of such a merger, could take several years.
via Telex, Featured image: Pixabay
