Egypt's two biggest state-owned banks, the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr have received around 445 billion Egyptian pounds ($25 billion) from their high-yield certificates of deposit from November 2016 to July 2017. The two banks launched 18-month certificates of deposit at 20 percent and three-year certificates of deposit at 16 percent, when the central bank floated the pound in early November 2016. The CDs were part of efforts to stabilise the Egyptian pound after the central bank ditched its U.S. dollar peg and raised benchmark interest rates by 300 basis points to try to unlock inflows and curtail the currency black market. NBE had raised around 300 billion pounds from its high-yielding certificates of deposit, including those for the National Investment Bank, deputy chairman Yehia Aboul Fotouh said. As for Banque Misr, the bank had collected around 145 billion from its 18-month certificates of deposit at 20 percent and three-year certificates of deposit at 16 percent, vice chairman Akef El Maghraby further told Amwal Al Ghad.
