Egypt

The performance of the Nile Stock Exchange (NILEX) over 2013 and into 2014 suggests that it has broken through the inertia that plagues many new secondary boards in stock exchanges. Established in 2010 as a sub-market for mid- and small-cap firms wishing to access liquidity through the exchange, the NILEX had to contend in its first year of business with low trading...

Given the fallout from the revolution of 2011, the management of the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) focused heavily on short-term challenges and adjusting market operations in order to safeguard the exchange. T+0 settlement was suspended, which brought intraday trading to an end, the pre-trading mechanism used to quote stocks’ guide prices was halted and price fluctuation caps...

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.