Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has on Thursday named Hassan Abdalla, an Egyptian banker with over 30 years of experience in the financial industry and managing director of media conglomerate UMS, as acting central bank governor.
Abdalla’s appointment comes after President Sisi accepted the resignation of Tarek Amer earlier this day.
After obtaining a BA, in Business Administration from the American University in Cairo (AUC) in 1982, he commenced his career at the Arab African International Bank (AAIB), the first multinational bank in Egypt.
He started in the bank’s dealing room, then moved to AAIB’s New York City branch in 1988 to manage its US treasury portfolio and hedging policy, while working on portfolio restructuring of bond swaps and repos. In 1994, Abdalla was promoted to Assistant General Manager, then to General Manager of AAIB in 1999. In 2002 he was appointed as Vice Chairman and Managing Director.
Abdalla played a very instrumental role in merging the Arab African Bank with Misr America International Bank following the latter’s acquisition of all the shares of the first, in a deal worth about 240 million Egyptian pounds. At that time, this was the first experience of its kind among banks in Egypt.
As CEO of the AAIB, Abdalla pioneered exceptional growth and expansion for the bank that led it to become the fastest-growing in Egypt and the region in terms of size and profitability. The bank is also the first in the Middle East to introduce the social development foundation and initiative, We Owe it to Egypt, for philanthropic activities, in addition to its sustainability activities.
Later on, Abdalla has managed in leading the bank to acquire the Canadian Bank of Nova Scotia portfolio in Egypt in 2015.
In 2018, Abdalla was appointed as first assistant to the central bank governor.
Abdalla has been an adjunct professor at AUC for the past 20 years.
In addition, he served as the former chairperson of the Saib Bank and chairperson of the Union Des Banques Arabes Et Francaises – UBAF in Hong Kong.
Abdalla served on the boards of directors of a number of key entities; the Emerging Markets Advisory Council (EMAC), the Central Bank of Egypt, the Egyptian Stock Exchange, Ghabbour Auto, Coca-Cola, Endeavor Egypt, Telecom Egypt, Orascom Construction, and a member of the Board of Directors of the National Competitiveness Council.
He also served on the Board of the Institute of International Finance (IIF) and was elected for six consecutive terms (2006-2012); a rare exception to the standard two-term rule.
