IIB, known as Russian spy bank to pull out of Hungary

The International Investment Bank is withdrawing from Hungary, since the US sanctions prevent it from conducting financial operations, mfor.hu has noticed on the website of the International Investment Bank, also known as the spy bank.

"Due to the de facto termination of Hungary's membership in the International Investment Bank, the IIB has exhausted the possibility of further operations at its headquarters in Budapest and in the European Union. The Bank has begun the process of relocating its operations and headquarters from Hungary to Russia," they write.

The bank recommends that the Government of Hungary immediately initiate the termination of the "Agreement between the International Investment Bank and the Government of Hungary on the Headquarters of the International Investment Bank in Hungary", dated 5 February 2019, they write. The page also says that the International Investment Bank will adhere to its policy of fulfilling its obligations and will use all available means to protect its interests.

The Hungarian government decided to recall the government delegates from the bank the day after the US sanctions were announced, and the decision to withdraw from the bank, signed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, was published in the Hungarian Gazette the same day. Hungary is the last EU member state to leave the Russian-influenced bank, even though its stake in the bank had risen to over 25 percent by the beginning of this year.

Last Wednesday, US Ambassador David Pressman held a press conference in Budapest, where he announced that the US had placed the Hungarian-headquartered IIB and three of its executives on a sanctions list. Two of them are Russian citizens, but one of them, the bank's Vice President Imre Laszlóczki, is Hungarian.

The government said that they had discussed the situation and had concluded that although the International Investment Bank played an important role in the development of Central and Eastern Europe, the US sanctions imposed on the institutions have made its operations unviable.

We have previously reported on the bank's struggles over the past year, and its Hungarian vice president as well.