Some Good News for Cairo’s Banking Sector

Ratings action from Fitch on Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB) shows that the country’s banking sector is poised for recovery, analysts say. Fitch this month raised CIB’s outlook to stable from negative, saying that CIB’s corporate franchise allows the bank to focus on private-sector borrowers with good credit quality. “We are positive on the strong recovery story the Egyptian banks are ready to capture,” says Abanob Magdy, vice president for banking at Beltone Financial in Cairo. “Our discussions with banks’ management teams reveals that there is no trend of credit delinquencies” and there has been a partial economic recovery which should ease the pressure on asset quality, he says.SOURCE: THE AFRICA REPORT