| Website www.magnetbank.hu/en |
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| Location Budapest, Hungary | |
| Key figures Impact story |
Mission
MagNet Bank does not sell bankcards, deposits or loans but changes people’s relationship with money. It connects with stakeholders. It plots the course money takes, making individual decision alternatives more transparent, therefore making personal impacts more visible.
MagNet Bank opens the door to taking responsibility, creating a much healthier relationship with money. How? Through its community-based Mentor deposit and loan programme, its Pay As Much You Like account management system, via bank cards and programmes supporting social initiatives, donation programmes involving clients, and by a balanced-profit approach with owners, in addition to a responsible, and transparent dividend policy.
MagNet Bank has created a bank where ‘we would be happy to pursue our banking activities too’. The bank’s value proposition is to develop banking instruments that support the realisation of positive improvements in the world, implemented by an organisational culture that is mature, open, inspiring and cooperative.
History
In 1995 the financial institution was established by private individuals, under the name HBW Express Savings Cooperative.
The first milestone in the bank’s history is 2008 when it became a bank as its share capital was raised. As a result, in March 2008 the Spanish Caja Navarra (later Banca Cívica), a pioneer in European civic banking, acquired a 30% minority stake in the company. La Caixa (previously known as Banca Cívica) held a 30% stake in the bank until 2013, when these shares were bought by the Hungarian management team. Today, 100% of the shares are held by Hungarian private investors.
Since 30 April 2010, HBW Express Bank has been operating under the name MagNet Hungarian Community Bank. The new name signalled new objectives: to be a trailblazer, paving the way for ‘community banking’ principles.
MagNet Bank’s shareholders, managers and employees developed the bank’s new strategy together; changing the framework of banking operation so that social responsibility and transparency had greater emphasis; engaging clients in major decisions; and harnessing the strength of communities. MagNet Hungarian Community Bank opened a new chapter in the Hungarian financial sector as Hungary’s first ‘new bank’.
Structure
MagNet Hungarian Community Bank is 100% owned by local private individuals.
Board of Management
- Zsolt Fáy: Chair, Board of Directors
- Attila Rostás: Vice-CEO and Member, Board of Directors
- János Salamon: CEO and Member, Board of Directors
- Gábor Pozsonyi: Vice-CEO and Member, Board of Directors
- Csaba Molnár: Community Development CEO and Member, Board of Directors
Market Focus, Products and Services
In the MagNet Bank community, customers are treated as partners. Here’s how:
- Customers decide what purposes their money is used for;
- Customers actively help local communities and initiatives via their investment, transaction, and profit sharing decisions;
- Customers are informed how much the bank earns from their banking activities;
- Customers support social initiatives annually by deciding how 10% of the bank’s profit is reallocated.
As the first domestic ‘new bank’, and in the spirit of transparency, MagNet was the first to calculate and advise customers how their transactions and banking activities contribute to annual profit.
Through the Community Donation Programme, customers have an annual opportunity to nominate civil society organisations to receive support from the bank’s 10% profit ‘return’. Since the beginning of this programme in 2010, more than 550,000 Euros was allocated to foundations or civil organisations engaged in health care, environmental protection and culture.
MagNet Bank believes that ‘the world developing around us is built on loans’. With the participation of clients, the bank provides resources for initiatives that have a beneficial impact on society and the environment. Community products provide MagNet Bank’s customers the opportunity to decide ‘loan purpose’ or identify specific borrowers they wish to support with their savings (Mentor and Sphere community deposits and loans). Depositors are also entitled to determine and monitor what happens to their money, and which loans are more favourable. The bank allocates loans from deposits solely for the specified purpose, ensuring depositors that their money serves a good cause. Through community loans, loan recipients also receive reductions in the financial burden of loans because depositors commit their savings to community deposits.
The bank’s CDP Card programme provides customers with the opportunity to support important social issues, with the help of their MasterCard. Every purchase made using the card ensures a civil society organisation of their choice receives a portion of MagNet Bank’s profit.
The Pay As Much You Like account management system ensures private/retail customers can self-determine their account management fees, enabling them to self-manage account management expenses.
MagNet Bank also offers traditional banking products and services: personal and business accounts and loans, savings, online account opening, NetBank and bank card services.
Being Part of the GABV
‘Gaining Global Alliance for Banking on Values membership is one of the most important milestones in recent years for MagNet Bank. Through this membership we have become part of a like-minded community, where we can exchange experiences with similar institutions, and mutually assist each other in spreading the reach and impact of value-based banking.’