Cairo – Mubasher: Standard and Poor's Rating Services said Wednesday that it revised its outlooks on National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr (BM), and Commercial International Bank - Egypt (CIB) to ‘Positive’ from ‘Stable’.

“We affirmed our 'B-/C' long- and short-term counterparty credit ratings on all three banks,” it added.

The ratings agency said it now sees potential upside to its assessment of the banks' "moderate" risk positions, which mirrors, among other factors, the banks' marked exposure to the Egyptian government through their portfolio of government bonds.

On 15 May, S&P revised its outlook on Egypt to ‘Positive’ from ‘Stable’, reflecting its expectations of an improvement in the country's external position, and affirmed the 'B-/B' sovereign ratings.