CENTRAL BANK OF EGYPT'S NEW BOARD OF GOVERNORS

UNCLAS CAIRO 003416 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ELA, NEA/RA AND EEB/IDF USAID FOR ANE/MEA MCCLOUD AND DUNN USTR FOR SAUMS TREASURY FOR MATHIASON AND HIRSON COMMERCE FOR 4520/ITA/ANESA/OBERG E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON PGOV EG SUBJECT: CENTRAL BANK OF EGYPT'S NEW BOARD OF GOVERNORS Sensitive but Unclassified. Please protect accordingly. ¶1. (U) On November 29, President Mubarak issued a presidential decree renewing Farouk El Okdah for 4 years as Governor of the Central Bank. Mubarak also issued a decree renewing Tarek Amer as the first Deputy Governor and appointing Tarek Kandil as the second Deputy Governor, both for 4 year terms. ¶2. (U) Following is the newly constituted Board of Governors, appointed for 4 year terms, with the possibility of renewal: Farouk El Okdah, Chairman Tarek Amer, First Deputy Governor Tarek Kandil, Second Deputy Governor Hesham Ramez, Chairman, Suez Canal Bank (new appointment) Ahmad Saad, Chairman, Capital Market Authority (new appointment) Alaa Eddin Hassouna Essabea, Chairman, Belton Company for Mutual Fund Management (new appointment) Mohammad Fathy Saar, Representative, Ministry of Economic Development (new appointment) Momtaz Mohammad El Saeed, First Secretary, Ministry of Finance Hassan Abdalla, Deputy Chairman and Managing Director, Arab African International Bank Abdel Salam Al-Anwar, Chairman and Managing Director, HSBC Egypt Mohammad Barakat, Chairman, Banque Misr Ziyad Bahaa El Din, former Chairman, General Authority for Investment and Free Zones Hazem Hassan, Bank Accounting and Auditing Expert Mona Salah Eddin Zulfuqar, Legal Expert Mahmoud Abd El-Fadeel, Economics Professor, Cairo University ¶3. (U) The following members of the previous Board of Governors were not reappointed to the new board: Mahmoud Abd El-Aziz, former CBE Deputy Governor Hatem El-Qarnashawy, Economics Professor, American University in Cairo Mohammad Saleh Younes, CEO, Concord International Investment Moawad Hasanain, CEO, Misr Insurance Hany Sary Eddin, former Chairman, General Capital Market Authority ¶4. (SBU) Comment: The new board continues the tradition of having the chairmen of both public and private banks serve on the CBE Board of Governors. Along with the involvement of other GOE Cabinet members on the board, the presence of bank chairmen gives the appearance of conflict of interest and makes CBE look less independent. The recent IMF Article IV staff report made reference to this, as did the U.S. statement at the IMF Board meeting. RICCIARDONE