Quaestor President-CEO Csaba Tarsoly (left) and External Economy and Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó officially open the Moscow Hungarian Trade House in April 2013 (photo: MTI).

On March 9, 2015, the External Economy and Foreign Affairs Ministry-operated Hungarian National Trade House (Magyar Nemzeti Kereskedőház) withdrew 3.8 billion forints in government bonds from Quaestor Securities just hours before the securities unit of the Budapest-based brokerage announced that it had initiated bankruptcy procedures against itself (sources A and B in Hungarian).

The Quaestor unit attributed its bankruptcy to an unmanageable spike in demand from its clients to redeem securities from the company following the Hungarian National Bank’s partial suspension of the operational licenses of the Buda-Cash Brokerage on February 24 and of Hungária Securities on March 6 on suspicion of fraud (sources A, B and C in Hungarian).

However, on March 10 the Hungarian National Bank announced that it had partially suspended the operational license of Quaestor Securities on suspicion of securities fraud as well (source in Hungarian).

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