The Union of Arab Banks (UAB) stated that the size of the banking sector in Egypt tripled during the past five years, between August 2017 and August 2022, as the volume of the sector’s combined assets increased from EGP 4.587trn to EGP 10.511trn, achieving a growth rate of 130%, which was not achieved by any of the other Arab banking sectors.
Egyptian banks continued to achieve very high growth rates, as the total growth rate of the sector exceeded 20% during the years 2020 and 2021, pointing out that these growth rates enabled it to advance among the Arab banking sectors.
The union added that it is necessary to point out the large relative size of the banking sector in Egypt compared to the size of its economy, as the sector’s combined assets constitute about 135% of its GDP.
Egyptian banks have taken advantage of the positive economic climate and the atmosphere of confidence secured by the wise economic, financial and monetary policies of the Egyptian government and the Central Bank of Egypt, to expand their activities at all levels, especially with regard to the expansion of financial inclusion, and to provide more banking services and products that meet the needs of the economy and customers from individuals and companies, and expanding the spread base, which led to attracting large deposits from Egyptian citizens at home and abroad, so that the volume of accumulated deposits of Egyptian banks doubled in five years.
It pointed out that despite the stability of the number of banks operating in Egypt during the past five years, the banking spread therein increased in an unprecedented way, as bank branches increased by 589 new branches to reach 4598 current branches, and automatic teller machines increased by 10,758 devices to reach 21459, and points of sale increased by 119,799 points of sale, to reach 188,429 points.
The union also pointed out that the adoption of effective measures in risk management and diversification of credit portfolios led to an improvement in the quality of the assets of Egyptian banks, as the ratio of non-performing loans to total loans to the banking sector decreased from 5.5% to 3.2% between June 2017 and June 2022. The ratio of loan provisions to non-performing loans from 99.1% to 92.1%.