Cairo – Mubasher: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) affirmed the strength and resilience of the banking sector, noting that the assets of banks operating in the local have significantly improved according to the financial soundness indicators for the period ended 31 December 2020, the Middle East News Agency (MENA) reported on Thursday.

Non-performing loans (NPLs) fell to 3.6% of total loans at the end of last December, compared to 4.2% a year earlier, the report showed.

Provisions for NPLs also retreated to 96% at the end of 2020 from 97.2% at the end of 2019.

In addition, the loan-to-deposit ratio rose to 48.2% at the end of last December from 44.8% a year earlier.

Moreover, the capital-to-risk weighted assets ratio increased to 19.5% in 2020 from 18.4% in 2019.