Crédit Agricole Egypt's net profit increased to 1.957 million Egyptian pounds at the end of 2017. The bank also achieved a 57% return on equity, compared to 51% in 2016. Managing Director Pierre Finas said, "the bank's ambitious strategy continues to deliver positive performance across all business sectors as well as a strong revenue and profit growth rate at 43.2% during the year 2017. This strategy operates through a balanced and diversified business model across all service sectors, including retail and banking services." Finas added that balanced performance has had a significant impact on the growth of all revenues, driven by the performance of all the bank's different business sectors. The banking activities of customers increased in 2017, attracting more than 50,000 new customers and thus expanding the retail customer base. He pointed out that net business income in 2017 amounted to about EGP 3.755bn, an increase of 33.4% compared to 2016. The improvement in cost-to-income ratio steadily rose by 27.4% during 2017. The bank's board of directors and senior management team continued to monitor the performance of the business in light of the development of the market, so as to ensure the continuing growth of the bank and to benefit from any changes foreseen as a result of the improvement in economic conditions. The bank's strategy will be further enhanced to remain a European bank model in the Egyptian market, providing excellent services to all customers, based on a long-term implementation of electronic services (e-services), affirmed Finas. Crédit Agricole Egypt will continue to support major investment projects in Egypt, in conjunction with other entities of the Crédit Agricole Group, in addition to promoting banking activities. During 2017, the bank made many achievements in terms of social responsibility and support for various sustainable development projects in Egypt. The bank also opened the largest solar power station owned by Egyptian banks.
