Banque Misr
Banque Misr wins the award for best local bank in the Middle East and Africa for BRI for the second year in a row by virtue of its impressive commitment to promoting trade and financing flows between China and the region.
The Egyptian state-owned lender issued more than 2,200 letters of credit with a total value of more than $1 billion for the import of goods from China and BRI countries during the awards period.
It also issued $150 million of guarantees and counter-guarantees for Chinese counterparts. The highest-profile of these was China State Construction Engineering Company (CSCEC), which has been commissioned to build 20 towers in Egypt’s new administrative capital and which is leading a Chinese consortium that will build Egypt’s first high-speed railway.
Under the leadership of chairman Mohamed El-Etreby, Banque Misr is taking a leading role in the internationalization of the renminbi and its use in Chinese-Egyptian trade and financing.
The bank’s representative office in Guangzhou has been strengthening relationships with Chinese correspondent banks, including ICBC and Bank of China, and in March the renminbi was added to Banque Misr’s FX list for trade finance business. In the following two months, the bank issued 34 letters of credit, totalling Rmb44 million ($6.2 million).
The Guangzhou office promotes Banque Misr’s image and reputation in the Chinese market; its bankers attend economic and financial forums, and help to further the bank’s cooperation with UnionPay.
Banque Misr has announced an ambitious expansion of its existing network in MEA BRI countries. It plans to add representative offices in Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia and the Dubai International Financial Centre, and to upgrade its Côte d’Ivoire operation into a branch.