Mortgage lenders, factoring and leasing companies to give clients six-month grace period: The Financial Regulatory Authority has ordered mortgage lenders, factoring and leasing companies to give a six-month grace period to any client who asks. This comes after the Central Bank of Egypt moved to extend the tenor of all bank loans to businesses for six months and provide debt relief for individuals at risk of default. The debt relief program is expected to benefit some 940k borrowers. The debt relief measures were announced alongside the central bank’s emergency 300 bps interest rate cut.

CBE debt initiative could exclude microcredit: Banking sources told the local press that microcredit could be excluded from its initiative to delay loan maturities by six months since it is more likely to cause more financial difficulties than provide relief. The program delays only the installments on individual and corporate loans, meaning that interest will continue to accrue during the six-month period.