Digital Banking, Sustainable Finance & Africa Enlargement

At a roundtable on the financial institution’s headquarters in Cairo, CIB’s management crew discusses enlargement in Africa, dedication to sustainable finance, rising digital banking instruments, and the long run for the financial institution.

International Finance celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of Business Worldwide Financial institution (CIB), Egypt’s largest non-public sector financial institution and a driving power within the transformation of Egypt’s banking sector, by holding a roundtable dialogue.

The occasion, hosted at CIB’s headquarters in Cairo, gathered the financial institution’s prime management crew to debate the financial institution’s historical past, how CIB has positioned itself because the chief in Egypt’s banking sector, and the way it will proceed to pursue progress whereas delivering progressive banking companies for its shoppers.

The panel included:

• CEO and Govt Board Member Hisham Ezz Al-Arab
• Deputy CEO and Govt Board Member Amr El-Ganainy
• Group Chief Finance and Operations Officer and Govt Board Member Islam Zekry
• International Markets CEO Omar El-Husseiny
• Chief Retail, Business Banking, and Monetary Inclusion Govt Rashwan Hammady

International Finance: What main milestones has the financial institution achieved over the previous 50 years, and what are a number of the classes realized?

Hisham Ezz Al-Arab: Effectively, you must give credit score to Nationwide Financial institution of Egypt (NBE) and Chase Manhattan for establishing CIB again within the Seventies, as a result of it modified how industrial banking is being carried out. CIB on the time it was Chase Nationwide Financial institution—was the chief in credit score lending. They modified the idea of asset lending into money stream lending, and that was new. Individuals used to lend in opposition to collateral and never in opposition to anticipated money stream; that was a serious change within the mind-set. This was the tip of the iceberg that led the change. Under that there’s a really stable tradition, to simply accept change, to innovate, to have one thing new on a regular basis, and that carried on over time. After I joined the financial institution in 1999, it was one of many giant non-public sector banks. The administration on the time and the board determined that we wanted to make what you name a “main change.” We wanted to be market leaders, and this was the time the financial institution made loads of modifications. From 1999 till about 2004, CIB was a market chief, making use of all worldwide requirements and doing issues actually not required by home regulation however utilized internationally.

CIB was the market chief in implementing the Basel III necessities in 2012 for asset legal responsibility administration, not just for the credit score stream and money stream lending. We began to maneuver to different areas of the industrial financial system. Establishing as an example the World Threat Committee, Governance Committee, Immigration Committee, Illumination Committee—all of these issues weren’t required by the Egyptian Regulation.

In 2005, NBE exited from CIB. We had been very meticulous, as a board to be sure that the customer would add worth. And that is the place the opposite journey began, in 2006. A consortium led by Ripplewood within the US grew to become the important thing shareholders, with three representatives on the board. And that is one other period when the financial institution began to vary. We had stable board members who added loads of worth, choosing board members meticulously grew to become part of our tradition. When ADQ purchased a stake in CIB again in 2022, the standard of the board members was additionally excellent. The vital factor isn’t the cash, it’s the contribution of the board members.

GF: CIB has a rising presence throughout Africa with operations in Kenya and Ethiopia. Inform us about this expertise and the place the alternatives for additional cross-border enlargement are.

Islam Zekry: CIB’s enlargement into Africa displays our long-term imaginative and prescient to place the financial institution as a number one regional monetary establishment, exporting banking excellence into high-growth, strategically related markets. Our cross-border progress technique prioritizes: sustainable worth creation over pursuit of scale for its personal sake, digital enablement to beat infrastructure limitations and speed up entry, and facilitation of intra-African commerce and funding flows, leveraging Egypt’s pivotal regional place.

Our final goal is to construct a resilient, scalable, and commercially viable cross-border banking mannequin that reinforces CIB’s footprint throughout the continent.

So for an Egyptian financial institution working from Cairo, there are two worth corridors we will chase. One is the more-than-famous remittance hall and the opposite is the East African commerce hall. That is mainly the pure enlargement for our company shoppers primarily based right here in Cairo, and that is the place a lot of the commerce publicity for the Egyptian buyer is coming from.

Second, the go-to-market was utterly totally different, as a result of while you strategy a rustic like Kenya, the place it’s very cloudfriendly, very digitally savvy, very superior from a funds perspective, we thought what sort of worth we might convey to the market? So we introduced money stream lending and enhanced the standard of the fee processes with our international companions. By the top of the yr, we may even introduce non-public and wealth administration companies.

We’re able to reposition Nairobi as our East Africa headquarters due to enormous operational synergies. It’s not about increasing the footprint or placing one other flag on the CIB international map; it’s about amplifying Cairo and Nairobi’s synergies. We additionally set an exploration section in Ethiopia and another targets on the east coast of Africa, however what issues for us is the worth creation.

GF: And the place is the room for progress in Africa or elsewhere?

Zekry: We see robust progress potential throughout East Africa and tradelinked corridors in Northeast Africa. Past the continent, the Gulf markets and chosen European hubs with robust diaspora hyperlinks provide promising alternatives in remittances and digital cross-border companies.

What differentiates CIB is our means to mix deep banking experience with native market insights, digitally enabled platforms tailor-made for premier banking companies and underserved segments, and a client-centric mannequin integrating transaction banking, advisory, and buyer superior and tailor-made options.

For instance, in Kenya, we’re enhancing SME lending by digital partnerships, leveraging the nation’s well-developed ecosystem. We’re additionally advancing digital channels to scale entry and deepen shopper engagement.

Al-Arab: Regional enlargement can also be about Egyptians outdoors of Egypt. How can we attain them and the way can we facilitate their banking transactions? That’s one thing that’s vital for our future banking companies.

GF: Sustainable finance has been a real dedication for CIB. Inform us concerning the financial institution’s main achievements on this sector and CIB’s dedication to integrating sustainable finance throughout the board.

Amr El-Ganainy: CIB launched the primary company inexperienced bond in Egypt, with a worth of $100 million. This was a landmark transaction in Egypt and was necessary in supporting Egypt’s transition to a greener financial system. Our goal is to play a pivotal function for all corporations, and we’re dedicated to serving to the non-public sector transition to a extra carbon-neutral future.

Zekry: At CIB, sustainable finance isn’t handled as a facet initiative, it’s on the core of how we function and develop.

After we partnered with the IFC to difficulty Egypt’s first inexperienced bond, that was just about unprecedented on the time. At present, that form of financing is embedded in our enterprise mannequin. In reality, once we launched our five-year technique simply final week, ESG wasn’t a separate chapter, it was current all through.

As we broaden throughout Africa, a major share of our progress will come from transitional finance, notably in agricultural and underserved communities. We’re introducing specialised companies in these areas: not simply as a growth purpose, however as a result of they make robust enterprise sense.

Even internally, we’ve developed how we assess efficiency. For instance, our Inexperienced Asset Ratio is now a core a part of our capital adequacy assessment, with a transparent goal to develop it by extra 1% to 2% yearly. That’s how critically we take it.

And to be clear, this isn’t only a company accountability train. It’s a part of our price creation technique. In reality, transitional finance has been proven to ship enhanced returns, typically producing 50 to 100 foundation factors above standard lending. So it’s each impactful and commercially sound.

GF: One other merchandise on prime of the agenda, naturally, is digital banking and transformation. Stroll us by CIB’s digital journey.

Rashwan Hammady: Our penetration of digital merchandise throughout the bottom, whether or not within the shopper half, industrial banking, or SMEs or company banking, continues to develop over the previous couple years. We’ve reached a stage the place digital isn’t nearly know-how, it’s about understanding human wants and conduct. Our core focus now’s reshaping our inside tradition to grasp and serve the next-generation shopper, those that are digitally native, community-led, and brand-critical. Gen Z and digital entrepreneurs will form the subsequent 20 years of economic companies. Our job is to anticipate, not react to, how they stay, earn, and make choices. We’re embedding design pondering, real-time analytics, and personalization into our working mannequin. It’s much less about digital “merchandise” and extra about constructing bespoke and lifestyle-driven experiences.

Omar El-Husseiny: Combining digital transformation and worldwide enlargement is now not a luxurious; as a monetary service supplier, it’s a should. That is the place we see the financial institution transferring ahead. That is the one approach we will broaden domestically and internationally, subsequently, maximizing shareholder worth. One takeaway from the previous 50 years is how the financial institution repeatedly adapts to evolving traits and developments.

GF: How do you employ digital instruments to focus on regional enlargement?

Al-Arab: For now, there are specific regulatory necessities that we’re engaged on with the regulator, and when that’s accomplished, it’s going to enable us to offer companies for people abroad. We need to do it seamlessly: easy, straightforward. The thought is that you’re sitting in your couch someplace and also you need to ship cash to your loved ones. You don’t have to go to the financial institution. You need to pay your payments? You don’t have to journey. You don’t even have to make a telephone name. It’s a brand new way of life. In case you don’t hold growing, you can be left behind.

One factor I need to stress is that CIB is an Egyptian firm. Apple is an American firm. The place do you manufacture your product? That’s irrelevant. The concept as a result of we’re an Egyptian firm, we have now to be native and never use the world to develop our market, is incorrect. We’ve to make use of the world.

Hammady: We had been one of many first gamers within the cell pockets area. We’ve acquired greater than 1.5 million prospects by way of CIB’s cell pockets. Our technique now’s extra geared in the direction of partnerships; we don’t have to construct every little thing. In order that possibly we’ll be the producer of merchandise and digital property and a associate will probably be accountable for distribution, service, and entry. True monetary inclusion isn’t about opening accounts, it’s about altering conduct. We’ve realized that literacy and belief gaps in Egypt require a hybrid strategy, sure, however extra importantly, we want localized design expertise. That’s why we’ve constructed a partnership mannequin the place we develop monetary merchandise whereas distribution and schooling are dealt with by companions with group attain.

That is how we unlock scale: regulatory-grade infrastructure with grassroots entry. The WE partnership will convey banking to tens of millions of recent customers. They’ve greater than a thousand branches, and this partnership helps us promote monetary inclusion throughout the nation. We predict to launch that throughout the coming six to 9 months, and that can cater to tens of millions of shoppers, particularly in non-urban communities, small cities, and villages throughout the nation.

El-Husseiny: Egypt’s financial system continues to rely closely on money transactions. This reliance locations extra strain on the cash provide and constrains tax income assortment, exacerbating inflation and increasing the funds deficit. Subsequently, encouraging monetary inclusion and digital transformation advantages CIB and the banking sector and is vital for border financial prosperity.

GF: You had been mentioning partnerships. Are we speaking partnerships with fintechs? With different gamers? How do you select your companions?

Hammady: Our philosophy is straightforward: We construct bespoke, compliant, scalable monetary infrastructure and companies; our companions present complementary buyer attain and engagement. Whether or not it’s telcoms, e-commerce platforms, or authorities entities, we select collaborators who already command belief and a spotlight throughout Egypt. This enables us to plug into ecosystems the place our merchandise change into invisible, however indispensable. We’re now scaling this partner-led mannequin not solely in Egypt but additionally as a part of our pan-African enlargement.

Zekry: Our partnership mannequin is sort of distinctive in that it brings collectively three core pillars: knowledge, digital, and design.

We’re data-driven, at all times looking for deeper insights into buyer conduct and proactively working to reinforce demand capability. We’re digital by design, utilizing know-how to increase our attain and optimize cost-to-serve, particularly in high-potential however underserved markets. And we focus strongly on expertise design, as a result of we consider that how prospects have interaction with banking nonetheless issues, maybe now greater than ever.

With regards to selecting companions—whether or not fintechs, infrastructure suppliers, and even expertise networks—we search for alignment on these three dimensions.

We’re additionally deeply dedicated to constructing from the area, for the area. The crew right here is working tirelessly to reverse the mind drain—attracting prime expertise from Egypt and throughout Africa—to assist construct the banking working system of tomorrow. We see partnerships as tactical and strategic enablers of long-term innovation.

GF: How is AI opening new doorways?

Zekry: Whereas AI has been round conceptually because the Nineteen Sixties, what’s basically totally different right now is that we’re lastly putting these applied sciences in a significant financial and operational context. We’re utilizing AI and knowledge analytics not simply to automate, however to grasp buyer conduct, personalize companies, and enhance decision-making at scale.

At CIB, we’re investing closely in constructing a group-wide knowledge infrastructure: not solely in Egypt, however throughout our African footprint. One clear alternative lies in streamlining KYC and compliance processes. By creating an built-in knowledge warehouse and sharing verified buyer intelligence throughout our markets, we anticipate to scale back the associated fee to serve by 20%-30%. To place that in perspective, I just lately got here throughout a examine citing EGP2 billion in redundancy prices from duplicative KYC efforts in London’s monetary sector. Now think about the potential financial savings if we might deal with that at a pan-African scale. The influence is big.

GF: What’s the way forward for CIB?

El-Ganainy: Being Egypt’s largest publicly listed agency and the nation’s main non-public financial institution we set our technique not solely to answer the alternatives rising right now, however to actively form the Egypt of tomorrow.

We’re the leaders in Egypt, and the long run is increasing our management and investments throughout Africa and the Center East.

Zekry: I see CIB evolving into a real enterprise platform: not simply within the digital sense, however as a regional and international enabler of funding, innovation, and progress.

We aspire to be a platform that pulls capital, connects companies, and delivers a brand new customary of banking experiences—all whereas being proudly rooted in Egypt. Whether or not it’s producers increasing from Egypt to the world or shoppers throughout Africa and past accessing seamless monetary companies, CIB will probably be there: facilitating, enabling, and main.

The way forward for CIB isn’t solely about being an awesome financial institution, however about turning into a trusted gateway to alternative: for patrons, traders, and the economies we serve.

El-Husseiny: I joined the financial institution 23 years in the past, at a time when most of our work was carried out on paper. I’ve taken half in a outstanding transformation, from handbook processes to desktop computer systems, and ultimately to digital-first companies. CIB will proceed to be Egypt’s main private-sector financial institution, and our ambition goes past nationwide borders. What units us aside is our means to adapt to prospects’ evolving wants. It’s not nearly offering distinctive banking companies; it’s about being a trusted monetary advisor.  

Integrating AI and applied sciences into our operations is crucial. What endures is the shopper expertise. Individuals will proceed to wish bodily financial institution branches. CIB has vital room to develop in Egypt. Throughout our technique course of, we requested our employees the place they envision the financial institution within the subsequent 5,10,20, and even 50 years.

The overwhelming majority of our crew shared a typical imaginative and prescient: we have now spent the previous 50 years constructing a robust and profitable establishment in Egypt, and for the subsequent 50 years, it’s time to broaden past our borders. As we have now developed a confirmed mannequin, it’s time to take that information and experience overseas, creating shared worth by information trade. Increasing internationally aligns with diversity- a core component of our tradition.  

We’ve been very profitable over the previous 50 years in cultivating variety in Egypt. It’s time to take that success international, the place we consider we have now the expertise and power to compete.

Hammady: Innovation, for us, is the artwork of institutional selfdisruption. During the last decade, CIB has reinvented its enterprise mannequin a number of occasions: from a corporate-first financial institution to an inclusive, data-led, multi-segment powerhouse. We at the moment are transferring towards a mannequin the place the financial institution is a modular service supplier, capable of plug into ecosystems throughout borders. My perception is that our subsequent evolution will see us not solely as a financial institution however as a monetary working system for the area.

Al-Arab: The factor I inform the crew and my colleagues is: We’re nearly as good as our goals. You dream small, you stay small. You dream large, you’re going to get there. Be bold.