A number of Egyptian lenders posted steady profits in the six months of the current financial year notwithstanding tough economic conditions in the troubled country’s financial services sector.

The country’s financial services sector, according to the Daily News Egypt, has been under pressure since the revolution started in the country more than two years ago.

According to the Daily News Egypt, the Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt (Faisal) posted net profits that surged 31 percent to EGP 370.816 million ($53.8m) in the first six months of the current financial year.

“Despite the current economic challenges, the bank is maintaining the level of its investments,” the head of media relations at Faisal, Abdel-Hamid Ahmed, told Daily News Egypt.

National Societe Generale Bank’s (NSGB) revenues for the second quarter gained EGP 51 million ($7.4m) to EGP 486.5 million ($70.6m).

“The strongly embedded risk management practices helped minimise the detrimental impact on the quality of the lending portfolio and the bank’s profitability despite the prolonged unfavourable economic environment,” the lender said in a statement.

An expert from one of the banks attributed this positive performance from these banks to the fact that most of Egypt’s banks’ use of “treasury bills and bonds.”

“These happen to be of zero risk,” Daily News Egypt quoted the expert, who is assistant MD at one of the banks, as saying.

The different strategies that the banks employed to tackle the violent turmoil in the country also stood the banks in good stead, the expert said.

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