The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) directed banks operating in the Egyptian market to increase financing for the operations of companies and factories, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), whose number exceeds 126,000, to face the increase in international prices.
This comes in light of President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi’s directives to CBE Governor Tarek Amer to contribute to solving industry problems, increasing employment and production rates, and supporting the economy in the face of developments in global markets.
This came during the meeting held by Tarek Amer, which included the finance and risk leaders and the legal departments of the banks, as a continuation of the meetings that the CBE has started with companies since January 2020 to solve their financial problems.
During the meeting, the Governor of the CBE stressed the need for banks, in coordination with the Banking Supervision Sector of the CBE, to immediately end judicial disputes about thousands of companies and about 29,000 loans to individuals, while reviewing the rules for classifying troubled clients so that they are not deprived of bank financing.
During the meeting, Amer stressed that the impact of the Coronavirus crisis is still extended and therefore taking into account the classification of customers during the crisis so that their financial positions are not disturbed, while reconsidering the rules of marginalizing customers to encourage banks to finance them in case of default so as not to worsen their financial conditions.
Amer renewed his directives during the meeting to banks to work on solving the financial problems of the industry and work to increase production rates, in light of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to mitigate the external price shock on the Egyptian market, and support all economic activities.
He also directed the heads of sectors in the banks to use their powers and take decisions that take into account the general interest of the economy and not only the interest of the bank, stressing that the safety of the economy is part of the safety of productive institutions.
Amer called for the need to work on solving the problems of the industry and to write off heavy fines from taxes, gas fines, land and insurances, in order to help companies get out of their financial stumble in order to preserve employment and return production rates to higher rates.
