Sherif Elwy writes AAIB’s sterling success story in Egyptian banking sector

The Arab African International Bank has written a story with sterling success in the Egyptian banking sector. It was established in 1964, to be the first multinational bank in Egypt. AAIB has a vision of being the leading financial group in Egypt, providing innovative services with a strong regional presence.

Arab African International Bank was established by Special Law as a Joint Venture between the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) and was incorporated in 1964 as Egypt’s first Arab multinational Bank. With each party holding a 49.37% stake, the Central Bank of Egypt and the Kuwait Investment Authority are the core of AAIB’s shareholder base.

The bank provides retail, corporate, and investment banking services in Egypt and internationally. In January 2009 the AAIB became the first Egyptian bank to adopt the Equator Principles.

AAIB was the first to establish a foreign exchange trading room in Egypt, and it was also owned the first to bring credit cards into the Egyptian banking sector which started in the eighties and was firstly introduced in 2003.

Sherif Elwy assumed the leadership of AAIB in 2018 and he succeeded the veteran banker Hassan Abdullah, the current governor of the Central Bank of Egypt. Elwy has a long career and an extensive experience in the banking sector. He was chosen by Forbes on its list of Top 100 CEOs in the Middle East 2022.

Sherif Elwy was Egypt country manager of Arab Bank for four years between 2014 and 2018, where he succeeded in doubling the bank's profits through attaining a growth in various business sectors while achieving positive results placing the bank on the map of competition in the field of financing, retail banking, and technological services.

Elwy was able since assuming the leadership of AAIB to lead the bank to be a frontrunner in the Egyptian banking sector. He focused mainly in the bank’s digital transformation as he intensified the bank's investments into technological development.  The bank was able to launch a digital wallet in 2019 in addition to providing the internet banking services, which is constantly updated to keep pace with the evolving needs of customers.

Under his leadership, the bank was also able to launch one of the best mobile banking applications in the Egyptian banking sector, which was completely designed and built in-house through an innovative model that pushes to accomplish its strategic projects quickly and in an orderly manner. Moreover, Elwy focused on the development of both the small and medium enterprises sector and the retail banking sector.