Banks financing the “white taxi project" have not received any official letter concerning the delay of payments of debts owed by the owners of white taxis after the Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi announced that the government is in talks with banks to postpone the debt payments for a year or two, said Karim Sous, general manager of credit sector at the National Bank of Egypt (NBE). He added that the bank has learned about the president's statements, but it has not received an official request yet. The president did not determine who will be given a delay for debt repayment the customers of the second phase or of the third phase of the project which aims at encouraging taxi owners to replace their aging cabs with new automobiles. He added that the number of NBE's customers of the second phase of the white taxi project is 6600 customers and the delinquency rate is 20%, but he declined to reveal the volume of non-performing loans of this phase.
