Banks operating in the Egyptian market achieved net profits of EGP 47.381bn by the end of the first half (H1) of 2017, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
According to a recent report by the CBE, the top five banks account for 69.52% of the total profits realised by banks operating in the Egyptian market. The profits of these banks amounted to EGP 32.939bn.
The top 10 banks posted profits of EGP 38.072bn, equivalent to about 80.352% of total bank profits.
According to the CBE, these profits were achieved for private banks during the period from 1 January, 2017, until the end of June. For public banks, the period was from 1 July, 2016, until the end of June.
While the CBE did not disclose the names of those five or ten big banks, it is known that it is led by the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Commercial International Bank (CIB), Banque du Caire, and QNB ALAHLI.
The CBE’s decision to liberalise the exchange rate on 3 November the previous year has positively affected the profits of some of the banks operating in the Egyptian market, the banks with capital in dollars, and the majority of banks with a capital in local currency.
According to the CBE, the net profits achieved by banks until the end of June 2017 was about EGP 89.873bn. The share of the top 10 banks reached EGP 69.162bn, equivalent to 76.955%. The largest five banks accounted for EGP 60.66bn, equivalent to 67.495% of the total profit of banks.
The net profits of the banks’ activity reached EGP 119.547bn. The top 10 of those accounted for EGP 91.486bn, 76.527% of the total. The top five banks accounted for EGP 80.112bn, or 67.012%.
On the other hand, the volume of bank expenses by the end of June 2017 rose to EGP 72.166bn, of which about EGP 53.414bn were of the top 10 banks, equivalent to 74.015%, and about EGP 47.173bn were of the top 5, equivalent to 65.367%.
The increase comes in the amount of expenses incurred by the banks due to their spending on updating and supporting their technological infrastructure and geographical expansion either through small and large branches or through ATMs and point of sale (POS) systems to reach their customers in different regions of the country.
