CAIRO: What began as mass nationwide protests demanding the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak eventually spilled over into various sectors, ministries, state institutions and, more recently, public sector banks.
To mitigate the effects of protest on the financial sector, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) resorted to declaring Monday a bank holiday, ahead of Tuesday’s national holiday during which banks are also closed.
The stock market reopening, scheduled for Wednesday, has also been delayed for the third time, until stability returns to the financial sector, the exchange said.
Al-Ahram reported that employees are on strike in the Bank of Alexandria, Banque Misr, National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Du Caire, Agricultural Credit and Development Bank and the Industrial Development Bank.
Most of the demands include wage parity among workers in different banks as well as decreasing the significant chasm between incomes of newly-recruited workers and top level management.
Some employees even demanded the ousting of banks’ top executives.
Tarek Hassan Amer, chairman of NBE, submitted his letter of resignation on Monday to Central Bank Governor Farouk El-Okdah after protesters demanded his departure and prevented him from reaching his office, according to local reports.
Amer reportedly made the decision after a meeting with El-Okdah on Thursday, during which he expressed his dismay at the lack of appreciation by the bank’s employees after overseeing reform and serving the Egyptian economy.
In the resignation, Amer said that most of the bank’s executives would follow suit, but Al-Ahram reported that his resignation was not accepted by the CBE.
Ghada ElRayess, NBE’s media relations team leader, said the ongoing events are not negative. “The employees have a wide range of concerns about the organization and the policies in terms of benefits and trainings as well as higher income,” she said.
“Now that we know the management is staying, the issue will definitely be solved. The protests are not a negative thing because there is no doubt that they will lead to dialogue between top management and employees, the management need to know about the employees concerns,” she added.
“Dialogue always has a good outcome. These past days have shown us that,” she added.
Banque Misr employees also protested, demanding wage parity with NBE counterparts.
Monette Doss, senior analyst at Prime Securities, said that in terms of financial performance, these banks will be negatively affected because the eventual outcome will be higher salaries, which will lead to higher costs and lower profit margins.
In the long run, however, this is a very positive development because it will lead to reforms and reforms are needed even if they are costly.
Doss said that if evidence is found of corruption in these banks, the salaries of top management should be decreased, adding that reforms should raise employees’ salaries.
Employees have a right to demand these higher salaries, she said, and they will in turn be more productive, leading to a better financial performance overall.
