Former CMS Senior Counsel Csongor Tompa has joined Bird & Bird’s Budapest office as Head of the Banking & Finance and Capital Markets practices.

Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners has advised Focus Ventures and Hiventures on their investment in Continest Technologies.

Based on Directive 2019/1158 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 July 2019 on work-life balance for parents and carers and repealing Council Directive 2010/18/EU (“Work-Life Balance Directive”), as of 2 August 2022 all Member States shall apply rules to improve work-life balance for parents and carers. In particular, Member States must ensure for working fathers at least 10 working days of paternity leave around the time of birth of the child and the paternity leave should be compensated at least at the level of sick pay.

On 5 August 2022, the Central Bank of Hungary (MNB) announced an update to its supervisory recommendation for credit institutions and Hungarian branches of credit institutions on climate-related and environmental risks. The recipients have to identify, manage, monitor and disclose climate and environmental risks.

DLA Piper has advised Wirtualna Polska on its acquisition of the Szallas Group from Portfolion Capital Partners and private individuals. Baker McKenzie advised Portfolion.

On 18 August 2022, a government decree on special rules for the employment of third-country nationals in Hungary during the emergency was published. According to the new rules, the list of cases in which the government office is not involved in the consolidated application procedure as a special authority, has been extended. This means that starting from 19 August 2022, government offices do not participate in the consolidated application procedure if the third-country national is employed by the general contractor or its subcontractor as defined under Act VII of 2015 on the investment related to the maintenance of the capacity of the Paks Nuclear Power Plant and on the amendment of certain related acts, including employment through a temporary agency, too.

As of 1 July 2022, Hungary's already existing financial transaction tax has been extended to payment service provision, credit and loan provision, currency exchange and mediated currency exchange services provided on a cross-border basis in Hungary. Provision of cross-border services means financial services provided in a country other than the country where the seat, place of business, head office, or branch of the service provider is located. Basically, this means that non-Hungarian service providers providing such services to Hungarian customers will most probably be affected by this extension.

Contributed by Nagy es Trocsanyi.

Partner Akos Fehervary has been elected as the new Managing Partner of the Baker McKenzie Budapest office, as of July 1. Fehervary takes over the position from Partner Zoltan Hegymegi-Barakonyi, who led the operation for the past nine years.

On 16 August 2022, a government decree was published amending certain construction, heritage protection, property management and government administration rules.

Former Wolf Theiss Partner Akos Eros has established a new firm in Budapest: Eros Law Firm.

As a result of the concession procedure previously launched by the Hungarian Government, the Hungarian State handed over the operation and maintenance of 1,237 kilometers of motorway to five different private companies from 1 September 2022 for 35 years.

This article provides an up-to-date overview of the currently existing FDI regimes in Hungary.

Ban, S. Szabo, Rausch & Partners’ busiest practice has been M&A, primarily driven by the consolidation trend in the Hungarian market, availability of investment money, alongside major companies seeking product diversification, according to Managing Partner Janos Rausch.

In recent weeks, the question of how to pay wages in euros has been raised more and more frequently. Can employees ask their employers to stop paying their monthly wages in forints and start paying them in euros? Considering the increasing importance of the issue, in the followings we are assessing whether Hungarian labour law allows for the possibility of setting and paying wages in foreign currency.

Hungarian lawyer Attila Bocsak has relocated to Doha, Qatar, to take on the role of General Counsel with Gulf Bridge International.

PeliPartners has advised Global Trade Center on the sale of Bucharest's Cascade Office Building to Hungarian Crown Holding Kft.

The Hungarian government has introduced an extra tax of 65% on particular turnover of energy producers from renewable sources.