National Fund Management Company (Al-Ahly), the investment arm of Egypt's biggest state lender National Bank of Egypt, has recorded a fall in its assets under management (AUMs) during the third quarter of the year. AUMs have dropped to 8.5 billion Egyptian pounds ($957.2 million) during the third quarter, Essam Khalifa, Managing Director of Al-Ahly, told Amwal Al Ghad on Sunday. Khalifa said the decline was driven by the central bank's decision to limit the total size of the banks' investments in money market and fixed income funds to 2.5 percent of the bank's total deposits in local currency down from 5 percent earlier. Al-Ahly manages seven mutual funds including various types and objectives; National Bank of Egypt Fund I (cumulative and income fund), National Bank of Egypt Fund II (periodic return), National Bank of Egypt Fund V (lottery and cumulative fund), Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank Fund (Islamic Fund), the Financial Sector Investment Fund (closed fund), National Bank of Egypt Fund IV (money market fund with daily cumulative returns), and a small portfolio of securities for the Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt. In January, Egypt's central bank limited the total size of the banks' investments in money market and fixed income funds to 2.5 percent of the bank's total deposits in local currency or 50 times the bank's maximum total investments in its owned money market funds or 2 percent of its tier-one capital, whichever is lower.
