Amer: Banks Paid EGP 350B on High-Yield Securities

CAIRO, Feb. 17 (SEE)- The Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer said on Sunday that banks had paid citizens about EGP 350 billion worth of interest rates on high-yield securities in the past two years.

"These certificates attracted EGP 800 billion pounds and 28 million citizens in two years," he said on the sidelines of the Nile Pioneer initiative.

Following the decision to float the Egyptian pound in November 2016, Banks issued savings securities with a return income of 20 percent until last February, in which the rate was reduced to17 percent in April 2018.

According to Amer, the subsidized securities launched by the central bank and other banks have cost initially huge losses, however, it supported millions of citizens, who would suffer from high inflation rates at the time of the floatation.

"Without these subsidized initiatives, banks and the central bank would have made enormous profits," he added.

The central bank launched the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) initiative with a subsidized interest rate of 5 percent, 7 percent, and 12 percent, as well as the real estate finance initiative to support the low and middle-income citizens.