NB II, currently known as the Merkantil Bank Liga for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of Hungarian football.

At the end of the 2004–05 season, the tournament format was changed from one division of 14 teams to two divisions: Keleti (Eastern) and Nyugati (Western), each with 16 teams.

On 2 March 2017, the Hungarian Football Federation announced that the number of the teams in the Nemzeti Bajnokság II will not be reduced to 12.

Even though the 4 rural districts were founded on paper in 1904, they only began to compete officially in the season 1907-1908.

During the world war I the league was played with very few teams.