11 Egyptian Banks Featured in The Banker Magazine's Top 100 Arab Banks for 2023

The Banker magazine has revealed its ranking of the top 100 Arab banks for the year 2023, which includes 10 Egyptian banks.

These banks are Afreximbank (Egypt branch), Credit Agricole Egypt, CIB, QNB Al Ahli, Arab African International Bank, Faisal Islamic Bank, Alex Bank, National Bank of Kuwait, Housing and Development Bank, EBank, and ADIB, in that order.

The magazine noted that between 2017 and 2021, Egyptian lenders were among the fastest-growing banks worldwide, particularly in emerging markets.

The state-owned banks, National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr, were highlighted as major drivers of this growth, reporting exponential increases in assets and capital at the highest level on an annual basis. They held the top positions among the top 20 Arab banks in last year's ranking.

However, the magazine's analysis indicates a shift due to significant economic slowdown in 2021, as the Egyptian government was compelled to devalue the local currency and seek support from the International Monetary Fund. This had an impact on key banking figures, with 6 out of the top 10 lenders in this year's ranking reporting capital decreases of over 20% in 2022.

An exception to this trend was Afreximbank, a development bank headquartered in Cairo, which saw an increase in its capital base in 2022 thanks to a capital-raising program.

The magazine further reported that Egyptian lenders in this year's ranking experienced a 24.3% decline in Tier 1 capital in dollar terms.

Meanwhile, CIB- Egypt, the country's largest private bank, recorded a slight increase in Tier 1 capital in local currency terms in 2022.

In its analysis of the top 100 Arab banks for 2023, The Banker noted that NBE and Banque Misr had not published or provided year-end data for 2022 at the time of writing this report. Consequently, they were not included in this year's ranking, as they had changed their reporting cycle from the end of June each year to the end of December.