Rifai: We have 80 troubled clients benefiting from the Central Initiative
Yahya Aboul Fotouh, Vice-Chairman of the National Bank, said that the number of defaulting clients in the bank to which the Central Bank’s initiative for defaulters in the industrial sector applies is 4,600 cases with a total debt amount of 16 billion pounds.
Aboul Fotouh added that the bank has now started communicating with defaulters in order to benefit from the new initiative that is intended to be implemented until June 2020.
Aboul Fotouh said that the financing of the tourism sector is worth 16 billion pounds, of which 6 billion pounds is a bad portfolio.
He stated that the bank’s real estate finance portfolio is currently 8 billion pounds, of which 90% is financing for low-income people.
In the same context, Hussein Al-Rifai, head of the Suez Canal Bank, said that the number of defaulters in the bank to whom the central bank initiative applies amounts to 80 clients with a debt value ranging from 480 to 500 million pounds.
He added that the Suez Canal Bank contributed to reducing its non-performing debt ratio from 52% in 2016 to currently 13%.
He explained that the bank submitted an application to the central bank to extend the period granted to banks for the portfolio of small and medium projects, adding that it is less than 10% of the total loan portfolio of the bank.
He pointed out that the bank’s small and medium-sized projects portfolio grew in just one year, at a rate of 77%, to reach 1.1 billion pounds, compared to 600 million pounds in the previous year.
He stated that the bank is currently studying a plan to manage the assets that had passed to the bank through settlements that amounted to 500 million pounds.
Rifai said that all the initiatives launched by the central bank help open up larger economic fields that contribute to revitalizing the economy.