Hungarians Battle to Keep Homes in Face of Strong Swiss Franc

"The amount of franc-denominated mortgages in Hungary surged to 2.2 trillion forint ($10.2 billion) in May from 133.8 billion forint at the start of 2005, according to central bank data. Non-performing loans at local lenders such as OTP Bank Nyrt, Erste Group Bank AG and Foldhitel es Jelzalogbank Nyrt may rise to as much as 10 percent of total loans by the end of the year, said Tamas Erdei, president of the Budapest-based Banking Association."