Egypt's Commercial International bank announced earlier this month a new service for its wealthiest clients: CIB Wealth, an "integrated financial package offered to customers with LE 500,000 or more in their CIB account. The new service purports to not only cater to the specific needs of the country's wealthiest individuals, but offers preferential services and rates to help their wealth grow. According to Salma Abou Hussein, CIB's head of wealth management, the new service offers clients access to wealth managers certified by the Securities and Investment Institute (SII) with an International Certificate in Financial Advice (ICFA); wealth tellers as well as CI Capital's services of private equity management and capital asset management. Preferential interest rates and auto and mortgage loans also seek to attract and keep top clients. Abou Hussein acknowledged that many banks are currently looking to segment their services by wealth bracket in order to better address specific needs and encourage loyalty. "Although we looked to multinationals for the model, she said, CIB is pioneering the segmentation process in Egypt. Preferential treatment for the wealthy is currently underway at BankMuscat in Oman, for example, another bank traditionally overlooked by top customers but its stability is drawing more and more attention. Hisham Khairat, CIB's wealth management director, referred to these top clients as "the crown jewel. CIB estimates they comprise an estimated 3 to 5 percent of Egypt's "banked population of 10 million, a demographic that only comprises one eighth of total Egyptians. Those wealthy enough to qualify, therefore, represent about half of one percent of all Egyptians. Although the CIB Wealth program has been under development for the past 18 months, the financial crisis accelerated CIB's effort. "Egyptian banks look particularly attractive these days, due to their low exposure to the crisis. The wealthiest Egyptians are searching for alternatives to the big multinational banks because they're no longer seen as so secure, Abou Hussein explained. CIB's CEO of Consumer Banking, Mohamed El-Toukhy expanded, "During the black days of the crisis [CIB] saw billions of pounds coming in. The cash flow of deposits from within Egypt continues. people are looking to the local market. Now as the crisis appears to have ended, CIB apparently hopes to retain clients who might otherwise again look to multinationals. El-Toukhy expressed his optimism for a highly profitable year. Khairat admitted CIB had set an "aggressive target for 2010: "Our target is to double and triple businesses. What we've done in the past year has made us greedy. There is big opportunity out there, and we need to get it. The market is very big. CIB Chairman Hisham Ezz Al Arab assured "customer satisfaction through wealth managers' financial consultation. He expressed plans to make CIB a "sophisticated bank, with branches available all over the world. The initiative had received an intensive branding effort: the words "CIB Wealth in ornate script on a dusty gold background covered the speakers' platform, the notebooks distributed for journalists, even the complimentary chocolates. In a video depicting the opulence of opera and sports cars, mostly male actors were depicted as the quintessential CIB Wealth customer. Current wealth customers spoke on the video, including Hanaa El-Sadat, businessman Ahmed El-Mawardy, cardiology professor Dr Omar Awaad, and Dr Alia El Mahdy, dean of economic and political science at Cairo University. Other sequences showed shots of Dubai skyscrapers and slogans like "knowledge is wealth. Beyond the ambitious ad campaign and other than providing special "wealth lounges for wealth customers in CIB branches, it's not entirely clear how the services are different than the preferential service any large bank show to its most important customers. Khairat responded to Daily News Egypt's question about whether the preferential rates were a new development. "Some are new, he replied, "Others were launched in the last few months or were already in place. The important thing is to keep launching new services and features, he parried, not specifying what those might entail. Tangible benefits include portfolio reviews every three months, a CIB platinum card with an unsecured credit limit up to LE 120,000, secured personal loans of up to 95 percent, and an unsecured loan program of up to LE 1 million. Yet such services are standard among top banks. The transition therefore, is for an Egyptian bank to have finally reached truly international level of customer service and assistance. CIB was already recognized as having the strongest brand equity in corporate banking Egypt as well as being the most profitable commercial bank in Egypt. As CIB is quick to point out, over 500 of the country's largest corporations bank with CIB, and it has the largest market capitalization in the Egyptian financial sector, with over LE 16 billion, 150 outlets and 500 ATMs. The CIB Wealth initiative though, is not necessarily intended to catapult CIB's profile to international status. Instead it represents a trend among all banking customers to find a secure place to store their money.
