Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) Tarek Amer requested bank leaders operating in the local market to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and arrange credit facilitations with corresponding banks abroad to finance import operations.
Amer met with chairpersons of banks operating in the Egyptian market and their deputies Wednesday afternoon in the first formal meeting with the officials since he took office as CBE governor on 27 November 2015.
According to prominent banking sources that attended this meeting, Amer said that bank leaders are obligated to support SMEs because of their important role in employing labour, reducing unemployment, and their positive effect on the national economy as a whole.
During the meeting, Amer heard the bank leaders’ thoughts regarding overcoming the problems facing the Egyptian banking sector. He reiterated his request that foreign exchange received from CBE is used to cover the import of essential commodities as a priority.
Banks received the first official letter from Amer last Thursday, in which he requested them to maximise their resources of foreign exchange. He urged banks to arrange credit facilitations with their offices abroad to finance letters of credit, as is customary in financing foreign trade operations all over the world.
