The National Bank of Greece (NBG), in cooperation with the Auctions Department of the Coldwell Banker Company, has sold the bank’s headquarters in Dokki to an entity affiliated with the Egyptian Cabinet. The bank will also sell its Zamalek branch via public auction.
The bank re-leased the Dokki branch for a renewable year, until the completion of the liquidation of all its activities in the Egyptian market.
On 10 May 2021, the Greek bank obtained the approval of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to proceed with stopping the operations of its branch in Egypt.
The bank asked its customers to go to its main branch in Dokki to withdraw their deposits as soon as possible. According to confirmed information obtained by “Daily News Egypt”, the process is already nearing completion, after the bank stopped receiving new deposits more than a year and a half ago.
The information indicates that with regard to the credit facilities granted by the bank to its customers, it has been agreed with the customers to schedule the repayment of these facilities on specific dates that take into account their circumstances and in a way that does not affect their business.
According to the information, the bank does not have any medium or long-term loans, only short-term facilities and retail loans, which are currently being repaid.
The Arab Investment Bank had reached a final agreement to purchase the portfolio of letters of guarantee existing with the National Bank of Greece, Egypt.
Tamer Seif, CEO and Managing Director of the Arab Investment Bank, said that this deal represents an addition to the bank, as the portfolio of letters of guarantee at the National Bank of Greece enjoys a distinguished group of clients and high quality.
Ernestos Panayiotou, General Manager of Development, Strategy and International Activities at the National Bank of Greece, welcomed this cooperation between the two well-established financial organizations, praising the support of the Arab Investment Bank in concluding this important agreement.
The National Bank of Greece’s exit from the Egyptian market comes in the context of the parent bank’s restructuring plan, in line with its commitments with the instructions of the European Commission, which required the liquidation of the activities of Greek banks abroad and the return of their liquidity to the country, in light of the financial crisis that Greece is suffering from.
The supervisory instructions issued by CBE stipulate that no bank may stop its operations in the Egyptian market except with the prior approval of the Board of Directors of the CBE.
The National Bank of Greece has already notified its individual and corporate clients in official letters informing them of the suspension of the bank’s business in Egypt in preparation for its exit from the market, and a number of its existing branches were closed according to the liquidation plan.
The failure of Lebanese Audi’s purchase of the National Bank of Greece-Egypt portfolio earlier reduced the alternatives offered to the Greek group in implementing its exit plan from the Egyptian market, as the National Bank of Greece Egypt is considered a foreign branch and not an Egyptian joint stock company, and therefore it had no choice but to follow in the footsteps of The National Bank of Oman, which stopped its activities in the Egyptian market several years ago through self-liquidation.
Bank Audi Egypt and NBG announced in May 2019 signing a final agreement to purchase branches and banking operations owned by the National Bank of Greece, but the validity period of the deal ended in November 2020, with the end of the legal period upon the issuance of approval by the Central Bank of the deal due to differences between management.
