Suez Canal Bank will up contribution in car replacement initiative, puts SMEs finance plan

The Suez Canal Bank (SCB) revealed that the bank aims to focus on car financing activities, Hussein Refaey, Chairperson and Managing Director said.

This comes as part of the recent presidential initiative, supported by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), to replace vehicles and convert them to a dual fuel system. It also comes as part of the state’s real estate financing initiative for low and middle-income groups.

Refaey said that the retail banking sector has significantly improved in terms of the services it provides, with the portfolio increasing to EGP 1.2bn in 2020. This compared to the EGP 752m recorded in 2019, reflecting a growth rate of 71%.

He added that the SCB seeks to prepare a plan for the CBE’s objectives regarding the small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) sector, to achieve target rates of 25% of the financing portfolio by the end of 2022.

Refaey also said that his bank’s portfolio of SMEs finance increased to EGP 2bn in 2020, including direct and indirect financing. A total of EGP 1.3bn of that amount was direct financing, reflecting a growth rate of 86% over the year 2019.

He added that the bank seeks to achieve the same growth rates for the retail banking and SMEs sectors in 2021.

He explained that the SCB focuses great attention on the CBE’s initiatives, as it has pumped EGP 1.4bn for the industrial and contracting activity initiative.

Refaey also noted that the bank aims to increase the number of its branches to 52 by the end of 2021.

He went on to explain that the bank wants to ensure that the new branches provide personal digital services to customers, which has been the case in the four recently opened branches.

Refaey noted that the bank intends to expand strongly in digital and technological services, by owning shares in a financial technology company. He added that focusing on digital services will be one of the SCB’s most important priorities in the coming period.