Modernisation of Egypt’s banking system through foreign banks

Abstract

The Egyptian economy is growing strongly. How much exactly, is – like the inflation figures – not quite clear. Different sources cite growth rates for the past two years between 5 % and 6 %. In such a fast growing economy one should expect a healthy banking system with good availability of credits, low default rates, the usual range of financing instruments and central bank rates acting as the interest benchmark. The reality, however, is quite different. The IMF gauges the availability of financing as low, as for example indicated by a sharp decrease of the ratio between loans to customers and assets; the default rates are still quite high (the government had to offload the massive 44 % share of non-performing loans (NPL) of Bank of Alexandria, before it could be sold to San Paolo IMI); private loan practices are sometimes bizarre (to get an overdraft facility customers have to deposit the equivalent amount in their account, despite a massive building boom there are almost no mortgage loans), while the corporate bond market is almost non-existent and a derivatives market still does not exist; and the private banks “are not necessarily responsive to central bank interest rate policies” as EFG Hermes analyst Reham el-Desoki delicately puts it. All this hints at major problems in the banking sector which necessarily have a negative impact on economic growth, inflation and the effectiveness of the central bank.