No increase in number of working banks in Egypt

Mahmud Abd El-Aziz, the head of the Egyptian bank union's and member of the board of directors of the Egyptian National Bank, opposed the idea of increasing the number of banks in Egypt, saying that the banking sector, comprised of 64 banks fulfills all Egyptian banking needs. Abd El-Aziz told ArabicNews.com yesterday, "The goal is not increasing the banks' number, but the safety of these banks," referring to the importance of decreasing the number of banks and taking serious steps toward combining some of Egypt's small and medium-sized banks into large entities.