The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque Misr announced, on Monday, that they will halt the issuance of 15% savings certificates, after achieving EGP 383bn in sales. 

In a statement on Monday, NBE Chairperson Hisham Okasha said the decision to stop issuing the annual platinum certificate as of Monday came after a meeting of the bank’s Assets and Liabilities Management Committee on Sunday.

Okasha said that the proceeds of the certificates provided by the NBE reached about EGP 280bn. He also said that customers who bought the certificate in the recent period will continue to enjoy the same return until the date of the certificate’s maturity.

Akef El Maghraby, Vice-Chairperson of Banque Misr, said that his bank decided to stop issuing the 15% fixed annual return “Ebn Misr” certificate after it saw sales to 1.3 million customers amounting to EGP 103bn. 

The National Investment Bank (NIB) also announced that it would reduce the return on its group A and B saving certificates.

As of Monday, the NIB has reduced interest rates on new issuances of Group B investment certificates for individuals, which are issued by the NBE. This will see returns on this type of certificate coming in at 10.25% for 1-year certificates, down from 13%. While 2-year certificates will have a 10.5% interest down from 14%, and 3-year certificates will have a 10% return down from 12%.

 It also reduced interest rates on Group A 10-year investment certificates for individuals and corporates, setting cumulative interest at 10.25% annually down from 10.75%.

The NIB has decided to reduce the interest on Group D 3-year investment certificates, issued to legal entities and companies. The interest rate on these certificates now stands at 10.75%, while continuing investment certificates based on their prices for the remaining period.