NBE ups mortgage loans to $33.6bn to serve 3,520 low-income units

The National Bank of Egypt (NBE)’s mortgage loans, upon the central bank’s housing initiative, have increased to 263 million Egyptian pounds (US$33.6 million), said its head of retail credit risk sector, Karim Sous.

The loans were tailored for 3,520 units for low-income citizens in response to the initiative launched by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) last year, which provided 10 billion pounds for banks to refinance mortgage clients at low interest rates.

In 2014, NBE, Banque Misr, Banque Du Caire, and Housing & Development Bank (HDB) have signed a cooperation protocol with Mortgage Finance Fund to finance 100,000 units with 8.5 billion pounds as pursuant to the CBE initiative. NBE seizes a share of 3 billion pounds; while HDB and Banque Misr capture around two billion pounds each, and Banque Du Caire controls 1.5 billion pounds.

Sous told Amwal Al Ghad that the initiative has faced many obstacles during the previous period yet it currently gains some popularity, notably from low income citizens.