The Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority published a readout of chair Mohamed Farid’s remarks at the fifth Al Baraka Regional Forum in Cairo, where he discussed development finance amid the global debt crisis and argued that weak domestic saving is a key driver of rising sovereign indebtedness. Farid also framed market stability, investor and policyholder protection, and clearer regulatory definitions as prerequisites for scaling ethical, sustainable and Sharia-compliant financing tools. Farid pointed to the Authority’s legislative and regulatory overhaul as supporting instruments such as sukuk issuance and takaful insurance, alongside changes in the functioning of firms’ Sharia supervisory committees and their interaction with the Authority’s central Sharia committee. He cited an increase in sustainable finance issuance in Egypt, including the first sustainability bonds in 2024 (USD 100m), sustainability securitisation bonds (USD 499m in February 2024), additional securitisations (EGP 11.5bn) and the first sustainability sukuk (EGP 11bn in May 2024), and said the lack of clear definitions had previously constrained use of these tools. On real estate funds, he said the market moved from only two funds between the 2020 launch and 2025 to around 12 licence applications within three months following recent amendments, alongside eight digital platforms to mobilise funding, while electronic customer verification has been used for around 400,000 digital checks; he also reported sukuk issuance rising to EGP 33.5bn after definitions were incorporated into the executive regulations of the Capital Market Law.

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