Banks maintain their investment trends during Q1-2024, Loans balances at the front

Banks operating in the Egyptian banking market have achieved strong and exceptional performance during this year, in almost all indicators, and by monitoring their investment trends in the first quarter of 2024, banks have continued to make customer lending and debit balances the first destination for their investment, the same policy they have pursued since the third quarter of last year.

This notwithstanding the marginal decline in its trend towards investing in customer lending and debit balances to 38.10% of total banking assets (other than the Central Bank) by the end of March 2024, compared to 38.46% by the end of 2023.

Banks also moved to reduce their trends towards investing in securities and treasury bills, as reflected in the decline in their relative weight, to account for about 30.68% of the total assets of banks operating in the Egyptian banking sector by the end of 2023, compared to 36.50% by the end of 2023.

Banks' in-house balances accounted for the third largest component of the Egyptian banking sector asset portfolio, with a relative weight of 17.78% of the sector's total assets by the end of March, compared to 18.36% by the end of 2023, while the remaining percentage was concentrated in other miscellaneous assets.

As a result of banks' policies during the period under analysis, strong growth rates were achieved, with Egyptian banks' net profits (other than the Central Bank) rising by 182.61%, registering EGP 156.2 bn in the first quarter of 2024, compared to EGP 55.3 bn in the same period of 2023, with an increase of EGP 100.9 bn.

In terms of the total financial position of banks (other than the Central Bank), the asset portfolio rose to EGP 17.9 tn by the end of March 2024, compared to EGP 14.2 tn by the end of 2023, with a growth of 26.02% and an increase of EGP 3.7 tn.

The portfolio of securities and investments in Treasury bills rose from EGP 5.2 tn by the end of 2023, to EGP 5.5 tn by the end of March 2024, with a growth of 5.91% and an increase of EGP 306.2 bn.

Customer lending and debit balances jumped by 24.82% in the first quarter of this year, reaching EGP 6.8 tn by the end of March 2024, compared to EGP 5.5 tn by the end of 2023.

Banks' capitals rose to 449.6 bn by the end of March 2024, compared to EGP 410.9 bn by the end of 2023, with growth of 9.43%. Reserves recorded EGP 793.8 bn by the end of March 2024, compared to EGP 476.5 bn by the end of 2023, with a growth of 66.60% and an increase of EGP 317.3 bn.

Provisions amounted to EGP 448.7 bn by the end of the first quarter of this year, compared to EGP 346.9 bn by the end of 2023, with a growth of 29.33%.

The deposit portfolio rose by 12.70% in the first quarter of this year, reaching EGP 11.4 tn by the end of March 2024, compared to EGP 10.1 tn by the end of 2023.