Egypt takes key steps to boost financial sector

 

 

Egypt takes key steps to boost financial sector 

 

By Ahmed Kamel

 

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has obligated banks to apply the standardized approach (SA) for measuring operational risks in compliance with requirements set by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in December 2017.

The new SA will replace the Basic Indicator Approach (BIA) as part of implementing the BCBS final set of reforms. The CBE has set a grace for the local lenders to comply with the new SA by December 31.

The new measure comes in line with the CBE’s endeavors to apply the world’s state-of-the-art supervisory applications to enhance operational risk management. The SA consists of two main components – a Business Indicator Component (BIC) and a Loss Component (LC).

Operational risks management

The CBE has also obliged the local lender to set up a special unit, or department, for operational risks management.  The new unit’s core tasks will be identifying, measuring and following up operational risks, in a bid to reduce them and mitigate their impact.

Foreign reserves top $40b

The net international reserves at the CBE rose to $40.063 billion at the end of December, CBE data showed.

Foreign assets hit $211.8b

Foreign assets of Egyptian commercial banks totaled $211.8 billion in November, compared to $214 billion the previous month, while liabilities plunged to $17.88 billion from $18.5 billion in October.

The foreign currency assets at the CBE reached $42.9 billion in November, up from $38.4 billion a month earlier. The foreign currency liabilities stood at $25.69 billion, CBE data showed.