Egypt’s economic reforms were long overdue, our friend Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, Chairman of CIB and the Federation of Egyptian Banks, told The Banker’s James King at the IMF meetings in Washington. “It was life or death to implement the reforms,” Ezz Al-Arab says. “What the government did by removing the subsidies is that they started to redirect their investment to the people in need … below the poverty line.” He does note that the reforms have created “winners” and “losers,” impacting the rich, the middle class, and, to a lesser extent, the poor. Those losses mean that it will take time for the middle and upper class to catch up again with their previous spending behaviour, Ezz Al-Arab says.

Ezz Al-Arab also praised the domestic banking system, noting that the banking sector came through the “volatile times” on solid ground built since the reforms of 2004 and tested in 2008 with the financial crisis, in 2011, and during last year’s reforms. “The banking sectors is … one of the most successful pillars for the reforms in Egypt,” he says.

Financial inclusion drive: He added that CIB is pressing ahead with innovations to promote financial inclusion and mobile payments and is calling for regulatory reform in this field. “What we are trying to say is: below a certain threshold, people should not fill forms,” Ezz Al-Arab explains. Opening an account should only require national ID and telephone number data to authenticate accounts at this level, he says (runtime 07:01).