Greek bank ceases Egypt operations

The National Bank of Greece (NBG) started to terminate its operations in Egypt with Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) approval.

The NBG, which has officially informed its customers to this effect, suspended all its savings certificates, current accounts, personal loans, deposits and all credit facilities as part of its exit plan from the Egyptian market, according to a statement on the NBG website.

The decision comes after years of unsuccessful attempts to divest the bank’s portfolio in Egypt, where it had 17 branches.

NBG had informed the CBE in 2018 of its plans to leave Egypt.

The CBE said the decision was several years in the making due to the fallout in Greece from the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The NBG’s decision to leave Egypt was in line with bank’s restructuring agreement with the European Commission, after the government debt crisis in Greece.

NBG had to scale back its overseas presence after it received state aid in the context of previous recapitalisations.

Under the agreement, NBG has also proceeded with the sale of its subsidiaries in Romania and Turkey and is working to sell assets in Cyprus.

Following the exit of Egypt, NBG’s international operations will be limited to just two countries: Northern Macedonia and Malta, according to an NBG statement last year.

Bank Audi had set to conclude a sale in early 2020, before the pandemic forced it and other Lebanese lenders to retrench as they faced challenges in their home markets.

The NBG was established at the beginning of the last century as the first Greek banking investment in Egypt to serve the Greek community at the time, and tostrengthen economic co–operation between Egypt and Greece.

Additionally, in light of the changes that took place in the social, economic, and investment climate in Egypt during the 1960s, specifically in 1961, the bank stopped its activity like all other foreign banks operating in Egypt at the time, and again—reopened a representative office in Cairo in 1975.

By 1979, the bank re-opened its branches in Egypt again, in line with the beginning of the implementation of the policy of opening up the economy and the start of the influx of foreign investments back to Egypt.