The new Hungarian government is now into its third month, with a sweeping clear-out of Orban-era officials that has included the recall of ambassadors from New York, Moscow, Berlin, Singapore and London. Among the less-examined new faces is Andras Karman, Hungary’s Finance Minister.
Karman’s remit covers the national budget, tax policy, debt management, EU funds and crypto. He has already moved quickly on the last of these. On 11 June the government announced it would end the over-regulation of Hungary’s crypto market; on 30 June the finance ministry proposed legislation that largely dismantles the 2025 rules on crypto-asset services.
The bill’s notes state that the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) Regulation already provides a sufficiently robust framework for consumer protection, transparency and market integrity. Domestic “gold-plating” is unnecessary and anti-competitive.
Companies like eToro, CoinCash, and Revolut are all keen to learn more, and perhaps reinvigorate their Hungarian operations. However, there are no real reasons to think that Karman is particularly crypto-friendly, it’s more about the Tisza government’s policies. Karman himself is a bit of a central banker first, commercial banker second, and now he is on the next phase of his career.
Karman at the Hungarian National Bank
From 1997 to 2010 he rose from analyst to head of the Monetary Regulation Department (2001–2007) and then Director of Financial Analysis (2007–2010) at the Hungarian National Bank. Consistent biographical sources (including Wikipedia and contemporary profiles) confirm this trajectory.
Interestingly Karman’s time at the national bank would have overlapped with the global economic crisis and subsequent updated Basel regulations. It also overlapped with Orban’s first prime ministerial stint from 1998 to 2002. Importantly, Karman will have remembered Hungary before Orban started to dominate the political scene.
Karman in Government and at the EBRD
After working for the national bank Karman found himself drawn into politics. Orban’s second prime ministerial stint overlapped with Karman being appointed State Secretary for Taxation and Financial Regulation at the Ministry of National Economy in June 2010.
He didn’t stay in the role for long. Karman formally left the ministry at the end of October / beginning of November 2011 and took up the post of Alternate Director (later Director) for Hungary at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in London. No official reason was given by the Hungarian government, simply that he was moving to the EBRD board.
However, there are reports that suggest Karman was more market-oriented than other members of the Fidesz government. He was an odd one out. One suited much better to an EU role than one in Hungary.
He served on the EBRD board from December 2011 until sometime in 2014 (exact end date not publicly available).
Karman at Erste Bank
By 2015 Karman was back. This time he was at leading Austrian banking group, Erste, where he was mandated to set up a new Erste Mortgage Bank (founded December 2015) and was its Chairman-CEO from the start. From June 2017 he also became Chairman and Managing Director of the building society subsidiary of Erste.
He worked at the bank until 2025 when he joined Peter Magyar’s Tisza party. Some of his achievements at Erste included Fitch awarding Erste’s mortgage bonds an A- rating with stable outlook in March 2017.
Potential Conflicts of Interest
His long tenure at Erste, one of Hungary’s larger foreign-owned banks, and the small residual shareholding he still holds have prompted questions about potential conflicts of interest now that he oversees bank taxes, housing subsidies and financial regulation.
Is Karman the Right Choice for Finance Minister?
All in all, the wider sentiment about Karman confirms that he is considered a market-oriented, EU-aligned finance professional. He has deep experience from his time at the national bank and working in the finance ministry. His time at the EBRD board gave him exposure to development finance, country risk and multilateral institutions.
Hungary faces a large fiscal adjustment, the need to unlock frozen EU funds, restore market confidence, and redesign housing and banking policies. Someone who has worked on both the official and the commercial side of these issues can move faster than a pure academic or a pure politician.
Karman’s Early Moves in Office
Just like with the new bill in Hungary, Karman is acting fast on the international scene too. On June 2 Karman said that a deal with the European Commission to release frozen EU funds would ease pressure on the budget, help cut debt and borrowing costs, and support the struggling economy. He committed to rewriting the 2026 budget and put it on realistic foundations. He plans to do this by the end of August.
Karman also said the €16.4 billion of EU funds is expected to arrive in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Then there is the matter of the euro, which Karman has been equally vocal about. He shared in May how Hungary would meet all criteria for euro adoption by 2030.
Supportive Economic Backdrop
Hungary is doing well. The National Bank of Hungary has cut its benchmark rate for a second consecutive month (to 5.75%) amid muted inflation. This environment of falling rates and contained inflation lowers the immediate pressure on debt-service costs and gives the finance ministry slightly more fiscal breathing room as it rewrites the budget.
At the same time the Budapest Stock Exchange has set new records. Karman joined the Governor of the Hungarian National Bank and the CEO of the Budapest Stock Exchange in the ceremonial ringing of the opening bell at the Exchange on July 17. The BUX is the official, real-time blue-chip stock market index of the Budapest Stock Exchange. It has grown by more than 40% in the last 12 months.
These market moves and the early policy signals form the backdrop against which Karman’s first months in office should be judged.
On the evidence of his first roughly two and a half months, Karman is performing the classic technocratic finance-minister role competently and is aligned with the government’s flagship macroeconomic goals. The supportive monetary backdrop improves the odds of short-term stabilization. It does not yet answer whether he has the political durability and coalition-management capacity required when the hard choices on spending and taxes arrive. The next six to twelve months, especially the August budget rewrite and the concrete deficit path, will be more decisive than the early announcements and the current rate-cutting cycle.
Author: Andy Samu
See Also:
MiCA’s Grace Period Ends, and Europe’s Crypto Market Shrinks Overnight | Disruption Banking
Could Hungary Build Its Own Tech Prosperity Deal in 2026? | Disruption Banking
