Banque Misr appears to have abandoned its plan to establish an independent mortgage financing arm, which Chairman Mohamed El Etreby had announced in May. Management found the decision currently untimely and decided instead to extending mortgage finance facilities, under the central bank’s initiative, through its existing administration, an unnamed bank official tells Al Mal. The central bank had recently decided to allocate an additional EGP 10 bn to its Mortgage Finance Fund, bringing its total value up to EGP 20 bn.