The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) achieved capital profits of EGP 300 million in the last period after the sale of its stake in MasterCard. The bank targets to achieve the same profit growth rate registered in the last fiscal year, Hisham Okasha, deputy chairman of NBE, said. The reform done to the Egyptian banking sector starting from the end of 2003 under the leadership of the former governor of the Central Bank of Egypt Farouk El-Okdah, the reforms done to the bank since 2008, strengthening the bank's financial position on June 30th 2009 and financing the provision deficit have all contributed to increasing the profits of banks in general and NBE in specific, he elaborated. The bank plans to dissociate from a number of local investments to meet the new rules imposed by the application of Basel II standards, Okasha noted. The implications of these reforms have helped the bank to increase its profits as the bank focused on arranging and contributing to syndicated loans, expanded in financing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), strengthened risk management techniques and raised returns on savings, he added. NBE's loan-to-deposit ratio currently stands at 38% as the loan portfolio reached EGP 110 billion. The total value of loans and credit facilities offered to customers prove that the bank continuously supports the national economy, he stressed. The bank works on reducing the non-performing loans which reached EGP 6.5 billion as the lender aims at reaching international safe default rates which range from 0.7% to 1.5%. Okasha revealed that the bank is forming committees in collaboration with the Ministry of Industry to support small and medium-sized enterprises which contribute from 50% to 80% to Egypt's GNP. NBE's financial statements showed that the bank achieved net profit of EGP 2.815 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30th 2012.
