Egypt Financial Services

In early 2017 Egyptian officials announced plans to offer stakes in 23 state-owned companies in a series of public offerings that would raise LE80bn ($4.5bn) over the following two and a half years. The move marked the return of the subject of privatisation on the national agenda after a decade of absence.

Although the country launched its first Egyptian Mutual Fund in 1994, the industry has evolved slowly since then. As of late 2018 there were nearly 100 funds operating under the supervision of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), including specialised funds in a range of asset classes: 29 equity, 10 sharia-compliant, six fixed income, 27...

Two of the biggest trends in global insurance in recent years are premium growth in emerging markets and the rising importance of technology across the supply chain. The latter has come to be referred to as InsurTech, a potentially disruptive trend that heralds both threats to and opportunities for incumbents and newcomers alike. While...

The year of 2018 was challenging across the board for many emerging markets, and changing trends in global capital movements have brought turbulence to the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) as well. After rising significantly in the first four months of 2018, the exchange’s main index, the EGX30, showed a sustained retrenchment to end the year at a...

Attempts by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to boost lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) dates back more than a decade. The Access to Finance initiative was one of the pillars of the second Egyptian banking reform plan – which was in effect over the 2008-11 period – and introduced the idea of exempting banks from a portion of...

The Egyptian Exchange (EGX) is one of the oldest stock markets in the Middle East and dates back to 1883. It includes the main market, an over-the-counter market, and the Nile Stock Exchange (Nilex) for small and medium-sized enterprises.