Egypt's two biggest state banks, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr have collected 705 billion Egyptian pounds ($38.1 billion) from the high-yielding savings certificates it introduced on March 21. The one-year certificates, have an 18 percent yield, were launched shortly after the Central Bank of Egypt hiked benchmark interest rates by 1 percent and depreciated the pound against the U.S. dollar by 14 percent. They are part of state efforts to stabilise the Egyptian pound after the currency depreciation move to try to unlock inflows. Banque Misr's certificates have raised 220 billion pounds, said chairman Mohamed El-Etreby told Amwal Al Ghad on Monday. NBE has collected 485 billion pounds, deputy chairman Yehia Aboul Fotouh was quoted as saying.
