Financial leasing contracts hike 19.7% during 2020

CAIRO – 19 January 2021: Value of financial leasing contracts increased annually by 19.7 percent during the first quarter of 2020, according to head of Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA)`Mohamed Omran.

Omran added that the contracts recorded LE 58.6 billion during 2020, compared to LE 55.9 billion during 2019, marking an increase of 4.8 percent.

This came during a press conference held Tuesday via video conference to announce the results of non-banking financial activities in 2020.

Omran attributed the limited annual increase compared to the first quarter to the slowdown in leasing activity as a result of the economic activities being affected by the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic.

He pointed out that mortgage granted volume during the first quarter of 2020 amounted to about LE 0.7 billion, compared to LE 0.4 billion during the first quarter of the previous year, achieving an increase rate of 75 percent.

FRA head said that the real estate finance companies granted LE 3.4 billion to their customers during 2020, compared to LE 2.6 billion in 2019, with an increase of about 31 percent, and the limited annual increase compared to the first quarter may be due to the slowdown in the real estate financing activity due to the impact of the  repercussions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.