Egypt’s Cabinet To Appoint New Banks’ Leaders Soon: Sources

Banking sources revealed that Egypt’s cabinet will change a number of leaders of state-owned banks such as the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Housing and Development Bank (HDB) and Arab Investment Bank, while leaders of Banque Du Caire, Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt, Export Development Bank of Egypt and Principal Bank for Development and Agricultural Credit will likely stay in their positions, unless they were assigned to lead other banks.

Barakat to leave, Fayed may succeed him:

Mohamed Barakat, chairman of Banque Misr, is expected to leave the banking sector because of many reasons; most prominently is that Banque Misr is accused of favoring some of the businessmen belonging to the former regime by giving these businessmen loans without guarantees. In addition, a report was referred to the public funds prosecution accusing Barakat of wasting public funds. However, these reports are expected to be concluded with Barakat’s innocence as he is known for his integrity. Barakat also wants to quit for health reasons as well as being over retirement age.

Sources added that Mohamed Abbas Fayed, deputy chairman of Banque Misr, is the most likely to succeed Barakat because of his great role in restructuring and developing Banque Misr which has reflected positively on the bank’s results. Fayed’s banking experience has enabled the bank to arrange and contribute to many syndicated loans.

Fayed has also played a key role in reducing the bank’s non-performing loan portfolio and bailing out faltering customers who were affected negatively by the turmoil that followed 2011’s revolution. He has management capabilities and decision making skills that will make him lead the bank towards stable and sustainable growth.

Amer to quit, El-Kosaer most likely to chair NBE:

Sources further stated that a number of National Bank of Egypt’s officials such as Tarek Amer, chairman of the bank, as well as his deputies Sherif Elwy and Hesham Okasha are expected to leave the bank. Sources added that Amer’s reasons for leaving his post are that Amer’s “main supporter” Farouk El-Okdah, the current governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), will quit and that Amer is a strong candidate to succeed him. Sherif Elwy and Hesham Okasha are attached to the chairman and will not be able to remain in their positions if Amer leaves, sources noted.

Sources affirmed that the successors of Amer, Elwy and Okasha will be of the bank’s employees whether those who currently work at the bank or those who are seconded to other banks. El-Sayed El-Kosayer, chairman of Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt, is the most likely to succeed Amer for many reasons.  El-Kosayer is one of the most prominent leaders of NBE as he worked for the bank from 1981 to 2011. He was a member of the board of directors and head of risk management department. He also enabled the bank to implement Basel I and Basel II standards.

When NBE’s employees held protests after 2011’s revolution demanding the resignation of Amer, Elwy and Okasha, CBE asked El-Kosayer to manage this crisis and negotiate with the employees. He succeeded to contain this crisis at that time, sources continued.

In addition, El-Kosayer succeeded in enabling the Industrial Development and Workers Bank of Egypt to achieve profit of more than EGP 50 million in 2012 for the first time since years.

NDP’s curse haunts Hany Seif El-Nasr:

Sources affirmed that Hany Seif El-Nasr, chairman of Arab Investment Bank, will certainly resign as he had belonged to the now-dissolved National Democratic Party. In addition, Seif El-Nasr has not accomplished any achievements since being a chairman. He did not do his assigned role in the last years of chairing the Social Fund for Development (SFD), as he offered loans with subsidized interest rates to banks that achieved high profits from these loans. Therefore, he made loan seekers turn to banks instead of SFD. 

Communiques threaten Fathy El-Sebaei’s position: 

Sources expected Fathy El-Sebaei, chairman of Housing and Development Bank (HDB), to leave his post as there are many Communiques filed against him claiming that he wasted public funds. The application of the maximum and minimum wage law that will be effective soon also affects El-Sebaei who has already wanted to leave the public sector. However, no one can deny El-Sebaei’s efficiency as a good leader of the bank as he reduced the bank’s non-performing loan portfolio, contributed effectively to offering mortgage services and enabled the bank to achieve good results in 2012.

Mohy El-Din is close to chair EALB after El-Atreby’s resignation:

Sources confirmed that Mohamed El-Atreby, chairman of Egyptian Arab Land Bank, is most likely to be named managing director and CEO of Egyptian Gulf Bank succeeding Ali Shaker who stated that he does not want to renew his contract with the bank. Abdel Megid Mohy El-Din, deputy chairman of EALB, is expected to be named chairman of the bank, following El-Atreby.