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Sunday, 18 December 2016

CBE, EFSA encourage new partnerships between banks, microfinance lenders

It would appear that more regulations to incentivise burrowing to small, medium and micro enterprises may be in the offing following a meeting on Thursday between banking executives, the CBE, the Egyptian Financial Supervisory Authority (EFSA) and the Egyptian Microfinance Federation (EMF), said Zulficar & Partners’ Mona Zulficar, who also chairs the EMF. At the meeting, banks were encouraged to buy the loan portfolios of smaller, non-banking SME lenders. Among the proposals championed by EFSA officials was allowing microfinance organizations (particularly those with a loan portfolio of less than EGP 10 mn) to collect on the loans on behalf of the banks for a commission, Zulficar tells Al Ahram’s Economics Edition. The meeting comes on the back of the CBE adopting new regulations for mobile payments on Wednesday, which the central bank hopes will open the door for a wide array of new financial services.

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