Egypt's biggest lender, the state-owned National Bank of Egypt has pumped 3.4 billion Egyptian pounds in the Central bank of Egypt mortgage initiative, Alaa Farouk -head of retail at NBE. He told Amwal Al Ghad that 32.5 thousands clients has benefited from the initiative up until March 2018. Farouk further noted that NBE plans to pump new loans of 300 million Egyptian pounds as part of CBE initiative by the end of June 2018 so that the total portfolio reached 3.5 billion pounds. During 2014, CBE has launched an initiative worth 10 billion Egyptian pounds (US$1.4 billion) to stimulate the mortgage sector and finance the purchase of housing for earners with low and average incomes. The money will be sent to banks, in the form of deposits, over a period of 20 years at low interest rates. Low-income citizens who qualify to benefit from the programme will be lent the money at yearly interest rate of 7% to 8%. In addition, Four Egyptian banks have signed the biggest financing deal in the history of the country's housing sector, worth 20 billion Egyptian pounds (US$2.25 billion) on May 2016 in favour of Mortgage Finance Fund to support the social housing scheme. The National Bank of Egypt is the oldest and largest bank in Egypt. It has 338 branches within the country, assets of EGP 366,6 bn., total deposits of 312,7 billion pounds., and total loans and advances of 114,7 billion Pounds As of 2007, the National Bank of Egypt accounted for 23% of the Egyptian banking system's total assets, 25% of total deposits and 25% of total loans and advances. NBE also financed about 24% of Egypt's foreign trade during the year. NBE also accounts for 74% of the credit card market and 40% of the debit cards in Egypt. NBE has a subsidiary in London, National Bank of Egypt (UK), branches in New York and Shanghai, and representative offices in Johannesburg and Dubai.
