Egypt Financial Services

Just how many of Egypt’s nearly 90m citizens remain outside the banking system is a matter of speculation. A recent report by accountancy firm EY suggests that only 10% of Egyptian adults hold an account at a formal institution, while other market observers have posited more generous estimates of up to 35% formalisation across the eligible population.

Despite a challenging economic backdrop, Egypt’s banks have succeeded in growing their assets and maintaining profitability over the past year. Their solid performance has been facilitated by a process of banking reform that began a decade ago, and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) continues to command the attention of the sector with its final...

Egypt’s revolution of 2011 may be over, but the lingering fallout has continued to force the banking sector’s regulator, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), to maintain a proactive stance in addressing potential weaknesses – something it has done with success over the past few years. Faced with a rapidly deteriorating economic scenario, it moved quickly to safeguard banks...

The success with which Egypt’s banks have increased their deposit base against the backdrop of political unrest and economic uncertainty is good news for the sector. According to a recent report by Lebanon’s Bank Audi, total deposits rose by 20.6% in 2013 to reach $189.2bn, an expansion more than double the size of that seen in the previous year.

Entering Egypt’s banking sector has long been a challenging proposition. The large number of domestic players serving a bankable population limited by low salaries and high informal employment has left the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) reluctant to license new lenders. The last major alteration to the sector’s ownership came in 2004, when the Central...

Effectively priced out of the international bond market, the Ministry of Finance has been compelled to turn to the domestic banking sector to meet the demands of the state budget. For local banks faced with reduced borrowing demand, the easy yield offered by a steady supply of treasury bills (T-bills) represents an attractive route to growth....