BUDAPEST, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The chairman of Hungary's Banking Association, Peter Felcsuti, has resigned from his post over differences with some of the sector's key players, Felcsuti said in a statement on Monday.
"The reason for my decision is that my opinion on strategic bank sector issues significantly differs from that of some of the Association's key members," Felcsuti said.
Felcsuti, the chief executive of Raiffeisen International's local unit, declined further comment.
Hungary's bank sector has come under pressure over the past year as the country's recession takes its toll on balance sheets. The central bank expects the share of non performing loans to rise to 13-15 percent by the first quarter of 2010 from just above 4 percent at the end of last year.
But banks have also come under public criticism for earning a pretax profit of 192.4 billion forints ($1.02 billion) in the first half, just below the 207.1 billion a year earlier, at a time when unemployment has soared to nearly 10 percent, the economy has shrunk by close to 7 percent and households have to pay higher instalments on their foreign currency mortgages. ($1=187.99 Forint) (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)