National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr sell EGP 70 bn of high-interest CDs

State banks sell EGP 70 bn of high-interest savings certificates in three weeks: Around EGP 70 bn has been invested in the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr’s new high-interest savings certificates since they were made available three weeks ago, Al Mal reports. NBE has sold EGP 47 bn of the 15% one-year certificates to 245k customers, and Banque Misr has sold around EGP 23 bn to 93k customers.

Background: The two state-owned banks began offering the certificates on 22 March to discourage people from putting their savings into USD in response to the recent market turmoil. The NBE also cut the interest rate on its USD certificates to deter people from holding the greenback.