Two Gulf lenders are positive on Egypt: Senior staff at Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) and National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) both expressed optimism about Egypt and their businesses here in interviews yesterday.

ADIB is reassured that we’re taking the right measures: Group CFO Mohamed Abdel Bary said he has confidence that Egypt has all the “needed underlying fundamentals and resources to navigate the debt specific situation” in a talk with Bloomberg (watch, runtime: 7:03). ADIB’s Egypt unit is a “long-term strategic” priority for the bank, which is “very much supporting its presence” in the country, he said. While volatility places Egypt as the bank’s greatest international exposure concern, Abdelbary said that ADIB’s position was “fully consolidated by the end of December 2022.”

Predicting a positive long-term outlook, NBK wants to expand its presence here: Egypt is the bank’s second priority market after Saudi — and the recent devaluation here was a “move in the right direction” despite the short-term economic impact, NBK Deputy Group CEO Shaikha Al Bahar said in a sitdown with the business information service (watch, runtime: 5:59). She added that a weaker currency will increase foreign inflows, including in the form of FDI.