The National Bank of Egypt's (NBE) retail loan portfolio registered EGP 20 billion at the end of 2012, compared to EGP 19.3 billion at the end of June 2012, said Hazem Hegazy, head of retail banking sector at NBE. Hegazy added that the bank serves more than 3.5 million retail banking customers and targets to attract a new segment of customers in the next three years through launching new banking products. He revealed that the personal loans accounted for 65% of the retail loan portfolio and credit cards accounted for 25% of the number of credit card in the market. The bank has an ambitious plan for the next three years targeting to raise retail loans to account for 40% of the bank's loan portfolio through expanding in offering personal loans, car loans, credit cards and durable goods loans and this will thereby diversify the bank's credit portfolio and reduce potential risks, he continued. Hegazy affirmed that the bank plans to pay much attention to pre-paid cards in the next three years in order to eliminate the risks of transporting cash as well as reduce the costs. The bank targets to launch the Youth Card which will enable college students to pay college fees. This experience has been already applied to the Faculty of Commerce, and the bank looks forward to applying this experience in all colleges in Egypt. The bank will also launch the Mobile Payment Service which will enable people to pay bills using Mobile through entering codes.
