Characteristics Of The Hungarian Leasing Market

In Hungary, the first leasing companies appeared in the 1990s. Nowadays, a very large number of operators are active on the leasing market; most of them are subsidiary of a bank operating in Hungary but there are also independent leasing companies which are not or not directly belonging to banking groups. In Hungary, the leasing market shows a fairly diversified picture. The authors will present the leasing forms which are current and frequently used in Hungary, the main features thereof and some characteristics of the accounting records, highlighting the Leasing Standard IFRS 16. Under IFRS 16, from the year of 2019, the lessee shall recognise the operating lease as an asset thus there will be impact on structure of the balance sheet and income of the large leasing companies as well as the amount of Earnings after taxes. Based on the statistical data concerning the years from 2008 to 2016, the authors will analyse the evolution of the following things: turnover of the whole leasing market, values of the assets outstanding and the new finances. They will point out the fact that, while the Hungarian leasing market has grown only slowly – even despite of the low interests – since the financial crisis erupted in 2008, the growth is continuous in the European countries and the leasing plays an important role in funding the investments of small and medium-sized enterprises. At the same time, in Hungary, the investment performances changing at national economic level and the sources of EU grants for development – in addition to other market factors – are greatly influencing the Hungarian leasing market developments. In the long term, one of the most important aims of the leasing companies is to be universal financers i.e. to provide flexible and cost-effective financing not only for vehicles, machinery and equipment but, for instance, IT tools. The continuously appearing innovations are expected to encourage the Hungarian companies to improve their competitiveness and, for this purpose, to make their IT investment more frequent. A financial manager should deal with the choice between some leasing forms and leasing products not only as a funding issue but care should be taken that the leasing can affect the capital structure of company assets equally in the short and long terms.