The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) studies the Central Bank of Egypt's (CBE) decision concerning extending the grace period for borrowers working in tourism sector one year at most starting from the date of implementing the initiative as well as capitalizing return on facilities to the original debt and not accounting the interest on deferred payments. An official source at the bank revealed that the bank has 400 customers in the tourism sector having performing and non-performing loans worth EGP 8 billion. The bank has stated it is ready to delay the payments of defaulters so as to encourage tourism sector which is faltering since the turmoil that followed 2011's revolution. The total value of the bank's non-performing loan portfolio reached EGP 6.1 billion at the end of 2012.
