BUDAPEST, Hungary —  Hungary is preparing a financial aid package worth up to 600 billion forints ($3 billion, 2.3 billion euros) to boost domestic banks' capital and help them refinance debts, authorities said Thursday.

The government plans to present the package to parliament by Monday and ask for speedy approval. Hungary would get nonvoting, priority shares in the banks participating in the capital increase.

The aid package for "Hungarian banks of systemic importance" comes as part of the $25.1 billion standby loan for Hungary announced last month by the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the World Bank.

National Bank of Hungary President Andras Simor and Finance Minister Janos Veres said in a letter to the IMF released Thursday that the package would "ensure a level playing field within the EU," allowing Hungarian banks to remain competitive with their European peers. European banks have also received government aid.

"The domestic banks have entered this period of market stress with strong solvency positions, which they have been able to preserve so far in spite of the severity of the turmoil," Simor and Veres said.

One of the risk factors for Hungary's banking sector is the large proportion of loans given to home buyers and businesses in foreign currencies, especially in Swiss francs and euros.

With the forint's exchange rate weakening drastically amid wide fluctuations, the risk that borrowers could default on repayments has increased.

Hungary has been is one of the countries in Eastern Europe hardest hit by the global financial crisis, as investors' fears that it would be unable to make debt payments and poor market liquidity caused the forint to temporarily lose some 40 percent of its value last month as shares on the Budapest Stock Exchange dropped to four-year lows.

Thanks to the IMF agreement the forint has recovered noticeably.

The government has submitted a revised 2009 state budget, cutting the expected deficit to 2.6 percent of GDP while forecasting a recession next year which could cut Hungary's GDP by 1 percent.

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