Sándor Csányi (banker)

Sándor Csányi was born on the 20 March 1953 in a lower middle-class agricultural family in Jászárokszállás. His father, József Csányi was the field guard of the cooperative of Jászárokszállás. His mother, Amália Ballagó was a line driver also in the town's cooperative. He has two brothers. His parents were beekeepers and produced sugar beets. He is of Jassic descent.[4]

When he was 14 years old, he moved from rural Hungary to Budapest.[5]

He graduated from Budapest Business School in 1974 with a bachelor's degree in business administration and in 1980 from the Budapest University of Economics with a degree in economics and thereafter received his doctorate.

After graduation he worked at the Revenue Directorate and then at the Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance. Between 1983 and 1986, he was a departmental head at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry. From 1986 to 1989 he worked as a head of department at Magyar Hitel Bank. He was deputy CEO of Kereskedelmi és Hitelbank from 1989 to 1992. In 1992 he became Chairman & CEO of OTP Bank Group and fired a number of managers (which was unthinkable in a formerly socialistic country). He is responsible for the Bank's strategy and overall operation.[6] After the privatization of OTP Bank in 1995, he started focusing on questions of broader strategic development.[5] He is a member of the European Board of Directors for MasterCard and is Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of MOL Group, Co-Chairman of the Hungarian National Association of Entrepreneurs and Employers (VOSZ) and until April 2011 was a member of the Board of Directors of the Hungarian Banking Association. He has been Chairman of the Hungarian Football Federation (MLSZ) since July 2010.

In 2015, he was elected to the UEFA Executive Committee, and in March 2017 he was elected as a member of the FIFA Council, before being named Vice President of FIFA in February 2018.[7] It is said, that he is the biggest investor in agriculture and that his Bonafarma operates the 2nd biggest slaughterhouse in the nation.[6]

He maintained personal friendships with leading politicians, such as then Minister of Finance, later Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.[5] His net worth is estimated at over US$1 billion.[5]

Together with other rich people of the country, he was implicated with the leaked documents Panama Papers in 2016. He justified his connection with the argument that it had been necessary due to international cooperation.[8][9]

He is married to Erika Csányi, and they have five children.