[6] The Hungarian National Bank holds an equity stake of 81.35 percent in the Budapest Stock Exchange,[7] following a takeover transaction in 2015.

After a few years of slow growth, 1872 saw the first significant market boom, when the Minister of Trade approved the articles of incorporation of 15 industrial and 550 financial companies whose shares were then listed on the exchange.

From the 1890s Hungarian government bonds were regularly traded on the stock exchanges of London, Paris, Amsterdam and Berlin.

As in most European countries, the outbreak of World War I brought about the exchange's closure on 27 July 1914, although trading did not cease.

Gustav Szabo became the youngest person ever to have a seat on Budapest Stock exchange at 18 years old when his father died in 1939.

[13] When Hungary entered World War II, the exchange saw a period of unprecedented boom, and equity prices in the heavy and military industries increased manifold.

In 1942 the government applied stricter measures for the BSCE articles of incorporation and set maximum values on daily price changes.

The first milestone in the re-open of Budapest Stock Exchange was the Government of Hungary's decision to give green light for the preparation of the Securities Act of 1989.

At the same time that the bill came into force on 21 June 1990, the BSE held its statutory general meeting and the Exchange re-opened its doors.

With 41 founding members and one single equity, IBUSZ, the Budapest Stock Exchange was set up as a sui generis organisation, an independent legal entity.

Even though the sale of the larger state-owned businesses often involved the assistance of strategic investors, the BSE played a significant role in the privatisation of many leading Hungarian companies including Rába, MOL Group, OTP Bank, Magyar Telekom, Danubius Hotels Group, Richter Gedeon Co., IBUSZ, Skála-Coop, Globus and more.

The Open outcry system of the physical trading floor that characterized the spot market functioned with partial electronic support until 1995.

Another series of standardised derivatives in the options market appeared in February, 2000 and on 6 September 2004 trading commenced in the exchange's second index, the BUMIX.

[16] In its strategy for the period 2021–2025, the Budapest Stock Exchange outlined its earlier efforts to develop the domestic capital markets.

According to this, the BSE's goal remains to increase the role of capital markets in Hungary and to support the growth and competitiveness of companies, taking into account sustainability aspects, thus ensuring the prosperity of Hungarian households.

The purpose of the listing is to promote the benefits of public operation among domestic medium-sized companies, while supporting the objectives of ownership and the international ambitions of the Exchange.

[20] On the Standard Market, in addition to the basic requirements of the law, BSE prescribes a public transaction to be carried out, with regard to the equity series to be listed.

A public transaction, involving the securities series to be listed is mandatory on the Prime Market as well, however, in this category, issuers may request a one-year postponement to fulfill this obligation.

[25] With a view to improving the continuity of prices and to avoid mistrades, several protective mechanisms are in place for the trading venues Xetra and Budapest Stock Exchange.