Five banks acquired 59.6% of the total assets' size of the Egyptian banking sector, in which 40 banks operate, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). In its quarterly report, the CBE stated that banks operating in the local market held EGP2.485 trillion in total assets as of the end of December, of which approximately EGP1.481 trillion assets were held by the largest five banks operating in the market. The report added that the largest 10 banks operating in Egypt hold approximately 72.358% of the total assets in the banking sector, an asset volume of about EGP1.798 trillion. While the CBE did not disclose the names of the top five or 10 banks, Daily News Egypt has learned that the list of the top five banks in terms of assets' size includes the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, the Commercial International Bank, Qatar National Bank Al-Ahli, and the Banque Du Caire. The five banks that make up the remainder of the top ten include, the Arab African International Bank, HSBC Egypt, AlexBank, Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt, and Crédit Agricole Egypt. Banking customers had deposited EGP1.383 trillion in the 10 largest banks in Egypt at the end of December, which represents 72.47% of the total customer deposit volume. Customer's total volume of deposits reached EGP1.908 trillion. The five largest banks held EGP1.13 trillion, a 59.218% share of the total deposit volume. The CBE also reported that the 10 largest banks in the marketed had collected approximately 67.68% of the balances of loans and discounts offered to the customers by the end of December. The report showed that the size of these balances reached about EGP791.499 billion by the end of 2015. The share of the largest 10 banks reached about EGP353.716 billion, while the five largest banks acquired 54.264% of the total of these balances, a share which amounted to about EGP429.5 billion. The CBE's report showed also that the top ten banks acquired about 79.05% of the total banking sector's investments in securities and government treasury bills. The portfolio of these investments at banks together amount to about EGP1.105 trillion. The share of the top 10 banks amounted to EGP874.053 billion, while the share of the largest five banks amounted to EGP750.103 billion, an estimated 67.84%. As for the size of the bonds and long-term loans at banks, the CBE said their balance reached EGP43.556 billion by the end of December. The share of the top 10 banks reached EGP27.657 billion, an estimated 63.497%, while the share of the largest five banks reached EGP26.736 billion, an estimated 61.383%. The capital of the 10 largest banks in Egypt amounted to about EGP56.149 billion as of the end of December 2015, which represents 58.204% of the capital of the 40 banks operating in the Egyptian market, amounting to EGP96.468 billion. The capital of the five largest banks amounted to EGP48.696 billion, an estimated 50.478%, according to the CBE. The CBE added that the 10 largest banks operating in the local market compiled provisions amounting to EGP38.751 billion in order to face bad debt, an estimated 58.206% of the total provisions in the banking sector as a whole, which amounts to EGP66.575 billion. The five largest banks immunized themselves against bad debt by composing provisions amounting to EGP30.181 billion, an estimated 45.333% of total bank provisions. In order to counter any surprises in the future, banks working in the local market compiled reserves worth EGP44.751 billion at the end of December, of which EGP36.234 billion are reserved in the top 10 banks, which marks an estimated 80.968% of their value, and about EGP24.897 billion in the largest 5 banks, an estimated 55.634%. — SG/Agencies
