Banque du Caire’s business results show significant growth in all business sectors in Egypt by the end of the fiscal year 2019 in excess of the targeted rates.

The bank’s profits before taxes reached EGP 5.29 billion at the end of 2019 compared to EGP 3.89 billion at the end of 2018, and net profits increased to nearly EGP 4 billion, compared to EGP 2.5 billion the previous fiscal year. The bank achieved a return on property rights of 31 percent, and a return on assets of 2.3 percent at the end of the fiscal year 2019.

The business results showed that the bank's financial position has continued to grow, bringing its total assets to EGP 183.4 billion, with a growth rate of 10 percent compared to 2018, supported by an increase in the total loan portfolio of customers and banks by EGP 13.2 billion to reach EGP 79.2 billion, a growth rate of 20 percent compared to the end of the fiscal year 2018.

This has been reflected in an increase over all business sectors, where the corporate loan portfolio increased by 7.2 percent; the portfolio of medium and small companies increased by 146 percent; the retail banking portfolio increased by 18.5 percent; the micro loan portfolio by 56 percent; and deposits increased by EGP 20 billion to reach EGP 151 billion with a growth rate of 15 percent compared to 2018.

The net income from the return increased by 29 percent compared to 2018 to reach EGP 8.3 billion by the end of 2019, as it was reflected in the increase in the net income rate to reach 5.2 percent on average in 2019 compared to 4.7 percent in 2018. Moreover, the net income from fees and commissions increased by 36 percent to reach EGP 1.5 billion.

The improvement of the abovementioned indicators led to a significant improvement in the profitability ratios, where the average rate of return on assets was 2.3 percent compared to 1.6 percent in 2018, and the average return on equity was 31 percent compared to 22.4 percent in 2018.

Tariq Fayed, chairman and CEO of Banque du Caire, explained that the year 2019 represents a radical turning point in the bank’s march on all levels of work, expressing his pride in the results achieved by the bank within a short period that reflect the strength and durability of its financial performance, geographical spread and the diversity of its credit portfolio.

“The distinguished financial results achieved by Bank of Cairo are its launch of unconventional performance at all sectors, which always pushes us to continue to apply the visions and development policies pursued by the bank since the current board took office,” Fayed said, praising the efforts of workers and their role in achieving these results.

The bank won many awards in 2019, the most prominent of which are the ‘Best Syndicated Loan in North Africa’ and ‘The Best Finance Process,’ crowning the bank’s efforts in the field of joint loans announced by EMEA Finance.

The International Finance Corporation also announced that the bank was awarded the title of ‘Best Bank in International Banking Transactions for 2019’ and ‘Best Bank in Foreign Exchange Transactions,’ which are awards granted by the British Foundation in many fields on the global level for banks and financial sector institutions. The bank was also named ‘Best Egyptian Bank in Development and Promotion.’

In 2019, the Bank of Cairo announced the launch of a new identity and brand, which represents a new era in the history of the bank to reflect the volume of development and innovation in its policies. In appreciation of these efforts, the bank won the award for the best brand in the banking sector for the year 2019 from English magazine Global Brands.

In the field of credit, the bank was keen to promote and develop the portfolio in various sectors such as financing large, medium, small and micro companies, in addition to banking retail, as the total loan to deposit ratio exceeded 52 percent by the end of December 2019, and the loan portfolio of major companies increased to reach about EGP 40 billion by the end of fiscal year 2019.

This increase was represented in the management of many major financing operations at the level of various economic sectors, most notably the fertiliser, contracting, oil, real estate development, food industries, pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, electricity, building materials, sugar mills, leasing activity, iron and steel, and transportation.

In the field of small, medium and micro projects, the bank achieved excellent results, where the growth rate reached about 90 percent, bringing the total portfolio size to about EGP 13.7 billion in 2019, and the microfinance portfolio reached about EGP 7 billion by the end of 2019.

The small projects portfolio reached about EGP 7 billion by the end of 2019, bringing it to 20 percent of the total bank credit portfolio set by the Central Bank of Egypt. The retail banking portfolio increased by about EGP 4 billion to reach EGP 26 billion at the end of fiscal year 2019, and we made sure Ali provides a variety of retail banking services and products Especially the cards of all kinds, whether credit, debit and prepaid cards.

The bank has also created new departments and provided the best services and banking products, including a wealth service for major customers, which was designed to meet the needs of the major clients of Banque du Caire by providing a diverse and selective range of banking and non-banking products and services such as VIP lounges.

Banque du Caire is one of the leading banks in the field of service and financing for small and medium companies, providing financing solutions that suit the needs of customers in various sectors. The bank has several plans for digital transformation and the trend towards financial inclusion, and has been keen to undertake a comprehensive development process for payment services via a mobile phone portfolio dubbed Cairo Cash.

Cairo Cash adds new services in an effort to meet customer needs and provide new banking services to a larger segment of customers by facilitating subscription procedures and reducing service usage fees, adding new outlets for withdrawals and deposits.

During the year 2019, the bank launched the internet banking service for retail banking customers, and plans to launch it for companies during the current year. A mobile banking service will also be launched soon, and there is an ongoing development plan to add new services, the most prominent of which is the "direct debit" prepaid card.

The year 2019 witnessed the opening of 11 new branches, in addition to the increase of ATM machines to 1,020 machines compared to 671 machines by the end of 2018. The bank is also working on building a strong infrastructure through the development of the bank's basic automated Core Banking System.

Banque du Caire launched the service to accept payments via mobile phone through the “QR code,” the first bank to provide this service in the Egyptian market, after obtaining the approval of the Central Bank of Egypt to support a large category of merchants and encourage them to use the service. The bank has succeeded in activating the service for about 800 merchants so far.

The bank also recently launched the "Baqara" account, which is specifically designed to meet the banking needs of women and enable them to manage their financial affairs through a package of banking solutions and benefits.

The balance of the mortgage loan portfolio has reached EGP 2.1 billion in the year 2019, compared to EGP 1.7 billion in the year 2018, with a growth rate of about 25 percent.

The bank succeeded in 2019 in launching many comprehensive community initiatives in training, employment and job creation, education and scholarships, health, nutrition, medical and scientific research, culture, village development initiatives in many governorates in Upper Egypt, as well as initiatives for empowering women, the youth, and people with special needs.

The bank has also been keen to support the sports sector by sponsoring the sports champions participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in many fields, including Paralympic players. The bank also pays great attention by taking all measures that contribute to the bank's compliance with the United Nations standards for achieving sustainable community development.