The central bank overthrows the head of the largest private bank...

On Thursday, the Central Bank of Egypt issued a decision to dismiss the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Commercial International Bank (the largest private bank in the local market), the prominent banker Hisham Ezz Al-Arab, against the background of his alleged involvement in “grave breaches” of the provisions of the Central Bank Law, and the decisions issued by the bank Banking system, and regulatory instructions.

A Central Bank report said, “Ezz Al-Arab violated sound banking norms and practices, and caused severe weakness in the procedures for controlling the granting and monitoring of credit, and their credibility, as well as its involvement in wasting all banking foundations, in addition to severe deficiencies in the internal control environment.” Which resulted in huge financial losses. ”

He added that the Board of Directors of the Central Bank decided in its session held on October 20, to implement Clause (i) of Article 144 of the Central Bank and Banking System Law, promulgated by Law No. 194 of 2020, by removing the Chairman and Managing Director of the Commercial International Bank. In order to preserve the integrity of the bank and the reputation of the banking system.

The Central Bank decided to appoint a member of the board of directors – non-executives – as a non-executive chairman of the Board of Directors of the Commercial International Bank, and to provide him with a request to amend the registration data, so that he can take the necessary action in this regard, noting that the bank’s board of directors bears legal responsibility for implementing this decision.

For its part, the Egyptian Stock Exchange management suspended trading on Commercial International Bank’s shares during the weekend session – the largest stock listed on the stock exchange in terms of market value – saying in a statement that “the suspension came based on a decision from the Financial Supervision Authority, and it is expected that a statement of its reasons will be issued.” .

The suspension caused confusion in the Egyptian financial markets, pushing the main stock market index to lose 8 billion pounds from its market value by the end of today’s trading. While the Board of Directors of the Commercial International Bank held an emergency meeting, to discuss developments related to the suspension of dealing in the bank’s shares on the stock exchange.

Ezz Al-Arab has held his position since 2002, during which the Commercial International Bank recorded a strong rise in the volume of its transactions, its position in the Egyptian banking market, and held many managerial positions in some international banks such as GBMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. Ezz Al-Arab also assumed the presidency of the Federation of Egyptian Banks in 2013.

The Commercial International Bank achieved profits amounting to 4.997 billion pounds during the first six months of this year, compared to profits amounting to 5.35 billion pounds in the comparative period last year.

During the first half of 2020, the bank’s net income increased from the yield to 12.47 billion pounds, compared to 10 billion pounds in the comparative period of 2019.