OTP Bank’s ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) declined for the first time since the onset of the global financial and economic crisis in the third quarter, OTP deputy-CEO Laszlo Bencsik said. The proportion of NPLs – loans past 90 days due – in the portfolio fell to 20.6pc at the end of Q3 from 20.8 at the end of June, but was up from 19.0pc twelve months earlier, the bank said in its Q3 earnings report. Mr Bencsik said part of the reason for the fall in the NPL stock was the sale of some of the loans „at a profit”. He said the bank’s market share of household deposits was 28pc at the end of Q3, about the same as in the previous quarter. Mr Bencsik said Hungary’s banking sector would pay HUF 360bn-370bn into the central budget this year, on top of corporate tax, more than double the HUF 140bn-150bn in additional taxes last year. Anyone who wants to place further burdens on the sector should consider it racked up a loss of about HUF 200bn last year, he added. Mr Bencsik said that OTP Bank granted HUF 91bn in loans in the first phase of the National Bank of Hungary’s (NBH) Funding for Growth Scheme. The amount was part of HUF 701bn banks lent to SMEs using 0pc refinancing from the central bank.