“Money is public funds up to the point when the founder contributes it to a foundation”, he insisted. Kósa also added that information on foundations of public benefit could be requested and the new law “does not mean that we have shut off the information”.

Parliament approved on Tuesday legislation to raise the salaries of top officials of the National Bank of Hungary (NBH) and to classify data concerning its companies and foundations.

The opposition Együtt party called on President János Áder not to sign the amendment, which they said was an “openly unconstitutional” legislation designed as a cover for the National Bank’s “looting public funds”.

In a statement, Együtt demanded that Áder veto the law and send it back to parliament.

The central bank’s profits are public funds, and voters should know what those funds are spent on, the statement said.

The Liberal Party addressed a similar call to Áder, and suggested a constitutional scrutiny of the amendment. Liberal executive Zoltán Bodnár told a press conference that the amendment contained “quite appalling” stipulations, and noted that it had been passed despite detailed objections by the Data Protection Authority.

Bodnár said that the central bank would restrict access to public data on “obscure grounds” and added that those restrictions are “unnecessary and run against effective regulations”. He also noted that strategic information supporting central bank decisions has always been handed confidentially.

Removing the National Bank’s foundations from public scrutiny is a “single move to turn public funds of 250 billion forints (EUR 806m) into private assets”, Bodnár said, and insisted that in the future central bank governor György Matolcsy and his deputies would personally make decisions concerning those funds.

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