CIB hikes Premium CD to 18% ahead of CBE meeting

Good morning, friends. Although many of us are still mourning our loss and exit from the World Cup, it can’t be denied that the Pharaohs put up a good fight against Argentina last night, and we’re proud of how far they took us. Onto the news of the day, there are three stories to unpack about our economy’s underlying structure — one on who controls it, and two on where it’s tightening.

The Mostakbal Misr story deserves your full attention. A draft law heading to parliament today would transfer the agency from Ministry of Defence oversight to direct presidential authority — and equip it with expanded financial autonomy, two new funds, and a minister-equivalent head.

On the real estate front: Cairo’s Grade A office market is tightening — rents are up 20% y-o-y, with landlords holding the pricing power as supply squeezes.

And a note on the broader economy: The country’s non-oil private sector hit a 3.5-year low, with June’s PMI reading coming in at 46.0 — the lowest since January 2023 and a sixth straight month below the growth threshold. S&P Global is projecting annual growth to slow to 3.8% in 2Q, down from 5% a year ago.

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Liquidity soak-up continues

CIB has raised the rate on its three-year fixed “Premium” certificate by 50 bps to 18% annual return, according to the bank’s website. The CD pays monthly and starts at an EGP 50k minimum (rising in EGP 1k increments).

The move keeps the nation’s largest private-sector lender in step with the state giants — the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr (BM) — which raised their own three-year fixed CDs by 50 bps last month. NBE’s Platinum and BM’s Al Qimma now pay 17.75% annually (disbursed monthly), up from 17.25%, with a new quarterly payout option yielding 17.85%. Both also rolled out a variable-rate savings certificate, currently at 19.25% — pegged to the CBE’s overnight deposit rate plus 25 bps.

Eyes on the central bank: The two lenders pulled a similar move in April, hiking CD rates by asharper 125 bps to soak up liquidity as regional war made investors wary. The CBE’s monetary policy committee is meeting Thursday to review rates. Financial analyst Hany Abou El Fotouh has previously said that banks raising rates independently of the central bank keeps savers in the EGP and provides stability without forcing policymakers to hike corridor rates and add to the government’s debt burden.

MEANWHILE- Like the banks, The Citizen Bond, which is meant to widen the retail investor base for government paper — the first two issuances raised EGP 5.7 bn and EGP 2 bn — is chasing the same household liquidity as the banks, which already hold government bonds worth around 34% of their assets as of September 2025.

No permit, no guests

Owners of furnished rental units who want to rent to tourists have one year to license them with the Tourism Ministry, Tourism Minister Sherif Fathy said at a press conference.

The terms: The permit requirement — which was issued last year — pushes owners to regularize. The PM has approved a full waiver of the fees required to convert a unit from residential to short-term rental use — conditional on meeting hotel building codes. Licensed units must also clear the ministry’s security, safety, and hygiene standards.

REMEMBER- Egypt is targeting 30 mn tourists by 2030 and needs about 250k more rooms to get there, but building new hotels takes a long time. These furnished, Airbnb-style rentals are an attractive alternative, and bringing these informal rentals under ministry oversight expands the licensed room stock and gives the government the visibility and standards it currently lacks.

DATA POINT- Egypt welcomed around 9 mn tourists in 1H 2026, up 4% y-o-y despite regional turbulence. That is well below the 1Q pace, when arrivals jumped 43.5% y-o-y to 5.6 mn and revenue hit USD 5.1 bn.

A second rater

The Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA) licensed a second credit-rating company and two new futures brokers, among 10 entities the regulator has cleared for practicing non-banking financial activities yesterday, according to a statement. International Company for Credit Rating Solutions becomes the country’s second licensed credit-rating firm and the first approved under the FRA’s 2025 licensing criteria, while Sigma Securities and Aspire Securities & Bonds bring the number of licensed futures brokers to eight.

IN CONTEXT- Egypt has long been a one-agency market with Meris Ratings, and the FRA has been trying to bring in a second player to deepen the local debt and securitization pipeline. The new credit rating agency comes from a joint venture formed in 2024 between Beltone Capital and Italy’s CRIF Ratings — the FRA selected the duo after they scored highest on the assessment criteria out of the other applying consortia.

Adding Sigma and Aspire widens the broker base for a product still looking for users. EGX30 futures have struggled to gain traction since launching in March, while the EGX has already tried to make the market more legible by rolling out single-stock futures on CIB and TMG. More licensed brokers will not create demand on their own, but they widen the access points as the FRA and EGX try to move derivatives from infrastructure to actual flow.

Culture minister steps down

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly accepted Gihane Zaki’s resignation from her post as culture minister, following her conviction in an intellectual property case, according to a cabinet statement. Madbouly has appointed Higher Education Minister Abdelaziz Konsowa as acting culture minister until a new candidate is selected.

PSA-

WEATHER- Looking like a classic summer day in Cairo today, with a high of 35°C and a low of 23°C, according to our favorite weather app.

It’s breathable in Alexandria, with a high of 31°C and a low of 23°C.

The big story abroad

The US-Iran conflict has reignited, as the US military launched a series of retaliatory strikes against Iran, putting at risk the interim agreement inked between the two sides last month. The US Central Command said the attacks came in response to Iranian attacks on commercial vessels crossing the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week. The US strikes were reportedly launched against military targets.

Washington also revoked a waiver that allowed Tehran to sell oil openly on global markets. The 60-day exemption was issued last month, allowing the Islamic Republic to conduct such transactions in USD — even to US importers.

Iran has not claimed responsibility for the attacks on vessels in the strait, but reiterated itsauthority over parts of the waterway in a document submitted to the International Maritime Organization — the United Nations’ shipping agency.

We’ll be closely watching the Iranian response and how these developments impact oil prices — which dipped below USD 80 / bbl after the agreement and now sit around the USD 75 mark.

Meanwhile, in the world of AI: E-commerce behemoth Amazon plans to bankroll its AI investments by raising USD 25 bn in USD-denominated bond sales. This dovetails into a recent trend of tech players resorting to debt markets to build AI infrastructure, as seen by the likes of Alphabet, Microsoft, and Meta.

The latest offering from Meta’s AI overhaul is here — an image-generation model. MuseSpark Image can be used to generate images from scratch or edit existing images. It can also be used to power new editing features on Instagram.

And on Wall Street: Private equity firms are now saddled with a nine-year backlog of unsold companies — some 13.5k in the US alone — as potential buyers hesitate to buy software-heavy portfolios amid fears AI will disrupt tech-based business models, analysis by PwC finds. For reference, buyout firms typically aim to hold investments for around three to five years.

PLUS- Nato allies went on a USD 50 bn defense agreement spree during the summit in Ankara, signalling an attempt by Europe to meet demands from US President Donald Trump.

*** It’s Hardhat day — your weekly briefing of all things infrastructure in Egypt: EnterpriseAM’s industry vertical focuses each Wednesday on infrastructure, covering everything from energy, water, transportation, and urban development, as well as social infrastructure such as health and education.

In today’s issue: We take a look at how Egypt’s mobile operators are deploying bn-EGP capital investments and new spectrum allocations to close persistent network performance gaps.