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In compliance with CBE regulations
Hany El Shamy: We seek doubling the SME portfolio within 3 years...
The new unit helps completing the funding procedures easily & smoothly
Cairo – Emirates NBD Egypt launches a specialized unit for funding small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in compliance with regulations set by the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) and in a bid to expand the funding of these enterprises, which are a key promising sector in the Egyptian market.
Sahar El Damaty Deputy Managing Director & Country Chief Risk Officer at Emirates NBD Egypt stated “Since Emirates NBD entered the Egyptian market, it was our ambition to meet customers’ needs for all segments, individuals and companies. Launching the SME segment is completing the picture in order to support, advice and provide education for one of the most important segments in order to grow the Egyptian economy.”
Head of Retail Banking and Wealth Management at Emirates NBD Egypt Frederic de Melker said "The new unit will ease up on SME customers and help to complete funding procedures easily and as quickly as possible. It also provides advice and consultancies required for the success of these enterprises, which will help in increasing the bank's SME customers."
Head of SMEs at Emirates NBD Egypt Hany El Shamy stated "The bank has implemented an expansion strategy for SME finance since the beginning of the 2nd half of 2016. The bank has developed SME sector, updated credit policies, procedures and internal systems to suit SMEs. Moreover, the bank has set a plan to gradually raise the SME portfolio within the coming 3 years; targeting 10% of the bank’s total portfolio by the end of 2017, then up to 20% by the end of 2019, according to CBE’s regulations".
Emirates NBD’s strategy has an expansion plan to increase the number of branches to 100 by 2020 to reach all segments of SME customers nationwide, in addition to raising the number of employees in the SME sector from 70 to 150 in the coming few years. The bank has already boosted the SME segment by appointing 30 specialists in 2016, increasing the number of SME employees to 100. Moreover, Emirates NBD Egypt launched a database to classify customers according to CBE decree in this regard to provide accurate information about each customer.
As part of Emirates NBD Egypt’s ongoing efforts to support SME sector, the bank has launched a specialized unit for credit marketing, along with risk and credit rating unit to provide SMEs with funding and banking services. Furthermore, Emirates NBD Egypt has set up a customer service unit to meet the needs of SMEs, as well as another unit for foreign trade, focusing on industrial companies manufacturing intermediate components which shore up industries and enterprises that pursue exports as part of the bank's interest in contributing to the nation's economic growth.
The bank has laid out a plan to train and develop skills and experiences of the new unit's employees. All credit officials and branch managers have already participated in intensive credit courses specialized in SMEs so that the whole team will be specialized and fully-aware of this sector’s requirements and risks as well. Therefore, all credit official becomes capable of granting good credit and following up on its continuity and quality. The bank also prepares for launching ‘Call Center’ service for SME customers in 2016 to answer all their inquiries.
Emirates NBD Egypt also seeks to increase its investments in this promising sector through providing SMEs with various services for boosting production, achieve sustainable development, create thousands of job opportunities and support the growth of national economy.
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© Press Release 2016
