From the 2026 budget audit
9 billion Ft in fees to manage loans a market would allocate for free.
Management fees paid to the organisation that operates the state fund-of-funds — a real cost of administering an allocation that a competitive credit market achieves without a fee charged to the public.
9,209 millió Ft in annual management fees — revenue-offset within the programme, but the offset is EU and co-financing money that Hungarian taxpayers helped fund through their SZJA and payroll taxes.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: a professional executing organisation maintaining and deploying a large financial facility. The unseen: the same fee, paid year after year, for administering an allocation function that price competition among lenders performs without a taxpayer-backed fee structure.
Objection
"But running a 344 billion Ft facility costs money — any fund manager charges fees."
Answer
A private fund manager charges fees against its own investors' capital and earns its mandate by performance. This fee is charged against a facility funded partly by taxpayers, for managing an allocation a competitive credit market would make differently — directing capital toward borrowers who clear an eligibility rubric rather than borrowers who clear a solvency test. The fee is not the problem; the allocation mechanism it services is. Freeze the fee with the facility; reassess both at period close.
Pass this on to anyone who has wondered where the fee goes in a government loan programme.
The analyst's verdict
Fund-of-funds executing organisation fees
Rationale
This is the management fee paid to the organisation that operates the fund-of-funds financial instruments. The fee is fully revenue-offset in the budget presentation, which means in cash terms it is funded from the programme rather than the general budget. It is not a free-standing patronage line — it is the price of operating a real financial facility, and a private fund manager would also charge a fee. The reservation is the same one that attaches to the facilities themselves: a fee for managing a fund that allocates by administrative criterion buys management of an allocation a market would have made differently. The fee is tied to the facilities; it should move with them. Freeze nominal while the period runs; reassess at period close together with the underlying instruments.
Transition mechanism
Hold nominal, tied to the underlying facilities. Falls away with the facilities if they are not renewed.
Affected groups
The executing organisation; staff employed on fund management.
Free Society Institute
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