National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is the oldest commercial bank in Egypt. It was established on June 25, 1898, with a capital of £ 1 mn. Since its inauguration, NBE was granted the note-issuing privilege, besides assuming the banking activities of the government as well as handling the usual operations of commercial banks. NBE’s total balance sheet amounted to some L.E. 106 bn. on 30th June 2002*. Deposits accounted for some L.E. 81.5 bn. versus loans and investments of some L.E. 59.6 bn. and L.E. 11.6 bn. respectively. Net profit of 2001/2002 grew to some L.E. 485 mn. According to the July 2002 issue of The Banker magazine, NBE came the 234th among the top 1000 world banks in terms of total assets.
