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Best Bank: Commercial International Bank |
Arab African International Bank won the award for best bank in Egypt in 2008. This year it made important advances in diversifying its business, especially in asset management.
Still, AAIB’s competitor, Commercial International Bank, posted better results for 2008. CIB’s assets grew by 20%, with net income growing 31%. By comparison, AAIB’s total assets fell by 4%, although its net income grew 18%.
In CIB’s favour in particular this year was its larger retail and corporate deposit base, which gained market share, and is almost 60% bigger than that of AAIB.
CIB tightened its risk management practices in 2008, building a specialized team to monitor its trading book and foreign exchange positions. It has also done more to centralize credit decisions in retail banking and has launched new business lines in areas such as wealth management, auto-loans and payroll-based personal loans.