Gerle János: Palaces of Money - Our Budapest (Budapest, 1994)

THE CASHIER’S HALL IN THE AGRARIAN BONDS BANK (TODAY THE HEAD OFFICE OF THE NATIONAL SAVINGS BANK OR OTP). A BÜST OF ANDRÁS FÁY IN THE MIDDLE (RECONSTRUCTION DESIGNED BY ANTAL LÁZÁR)

The idea of establishing an independent national bank of Hungary was first conceived of in the reform era of the 1820s and 30s, but to no avail at the time. However, the first financial institution was actually founded when in 1840 András Fáy, also renowned as a writer of fables, founded the First Pest Domestic Savings Bank Association. Fáy was involved with István Széchenyi, who was the first to insist that financial transactions should be raised to a European standard. In his work Credit (Hitel), published in 1830, he urged that the legislative and political prerequisites of credit operations should be created, as these, he argued, were the preconditions of economic and commercial progress. However, the matter of credit is, above all, an ethical issue for him.

...I use the term Credit in the sense of its Latin equivalent Creditum, which refers to nothing other than the trust we feel about the security of our possessions, whether they be real estate or movable property, in the keeping of another person. The greater the trust and security someone can offer in relation to our property in his keeping, the greater Credit or Creditum he has; and the greater the trust and security with which the public feels about its property held by others, the more satisfactory the conditions of Credit are in that country.

...Credit, in a broader sense,... means “to believe others and be believed by them”. Credit, or belief,

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