This article addresses how the Hungarian Central Bank gained autonomy in its operations from ruling politicians. While stressing the substantial influence of external actors in exercise of this reform, the article also demonstrates the limits of external influence by shedding light on the domestic political costs of this reform. The high costs of central bank reform in the calculations of the ruling politicians allowed the Central Bank of Hungary to gain partial operational autonomy in 1991, which fell short of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria for EU accession. The article discusses how partial reform furthered in Hungarian context by unpacking the interplay between domestic and external actors.