Business News has announced the results of its seventh edition of the Bank Performance Indicators in Egypt in 2017. The Commercial International Bank (CIB) received the Bank of the Year award, following a year of strong and balanced performance.
The unfavourable economic conditions did not prevent the bank from growing and enhancing the profitability of its shareholders while maintaining safe operating standards, including strong capital adequacy of risk-weighted assets and maintaining operating costs at one of the lowest rates in the banking sector.
The bank has a first tranche of the underlying capital covering 12.9% of its risk-weighted assets, despite the growth of its financial position by 49% from last year.
(Photo Handout to DNE)
The performance of the bank in terms of the customer satisfaction index was strong, ranking second, with a slight gap from the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). The bank received a high positive rating from the 385 companies that participated in the assessment of banks this year.
The main indicator of Business News for Bank of the Year consists of four indexes across 17 sections.
The four main indexes are the most efficient bank, which gets a high relative weight among the other indicators; the fastest growing index; the customer satisfaction index; and the community social responsibility (CSR) index.
Ahli United Bank topped the index for the most efficient bank in the market. In second place came Barclays Bank, which recorded the highest net profit to revenue, followed by Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait, which benefited from the profit boom following the flotation of the pound.
NBE maintained its top ranking for the customer satisfaction index for the fourth time in a row, thanks by its geographical spread.
CIB came second on this index, beating Blom, which came third, and Audi in fourth.
The Egyptian Gulf Bank maintained its lead for the fastest growing Business News Index, having doubled its assets for the second year in a row and significantly increased its market share.
Societe Arabe Internationale De Banque (SAIB) came second in terms of fastest growing bank in Egypt, having increased its assets by 58%, which reflected on profits that jumped by 167%.
Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait followed in third, even though it was the biggest bank to win from the flotation of the pound. The profits grew to reach EGP 1.359bn, against losses in 2015. Roughly 93% of these profits resulted from flotation.In the expenditure on CSR index, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) ranked first, with an expenditure rate of 4% of total profits compared to the previous year, followed by SAIB, which spent 2.4% of total profits, and then Audi Bank with an expenditure of 2.32%.
Regarding the Business News Index for individuals services, which is an index independent from the indexes of the bank of the year, CIB ranked first amongst other banks banks for individuals services in Egypt, as a result of its dependence on electronic services, in addition to the growth of its market share of retail transactions.
The “best bank” index for individuals services measures the performance of banks in four main areas, most importantly geographical prevalence and electronic means the bank provides to customers.
In the second place came the Bank of Alexandria in terms of individuals services. In the third place came of Qatar National Bank (QNB).
Details showed that the banking sector was affected the most by the flotation of the Egyptian pound over the past months. This was clear in the large increases in the assets of the banking system after the revaluation of the foreign currency component.
Despite the flotation of the currency, the risks of the exchange rate liberalisation still persist. Banks that enjoy capital in the foreign currency, and which have also achieved historical gains in profits, may suffer from declining profits in case the dollar depreciated against the pound, which made them remain in a state of caution for any danger.
