The central bank will be reviewing limits on USD deposit caps after initial inflows of FX liquidity since the EGP float exceeded expectations, CBE Governor Tarek Amer told banking heads at the meeting with the Federation of Egyptian Banks on Sunday. Amer also said that the CBE will be looking into the risk treatment on open positions, telling banks to hold off on closing these positions until the EGP strengthens further so that burrowers do not incur major FX losses. Borrowing costs have gone up 80-100% for importers since the EGP float, he said according to Al Mal. He encouraged the banks to continue weakening the USD. Amer had stated that the banking sector had managed to draw in USD 1.4 bn in the first week of the float.

Meanwhile, remittances to the National Bank of Egypt have apparently grown tenfold since the float, said NBE’s deputy chairman Yehia Aboul Fotouh. He says that NBE has raked in USD 300 mn since the float. Banque Misr chairman Mohamed El Etreby tells Al Mal that his bank pulled in the USD equivalent of EGP 26 bn through its three-year and 18 month CDs.