The United Bank of Egypt confirmed the appointment of Tarek Fayed as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director in September 2025, following a formal disclosure on the Egyptian Exchange. The EGX filing established Fayed's leadership of the Cairo-based lender on an official and regulatory basis, and brought to a close the tenure of his predecessor, Ashraf El Kady, who had held the chief executive position at The United Bank since 2016. The transition represents one of several senior leadership changes at Egyptian banking institutions as the sector enters what many observers expect to be a more stable macroeconomic environment following the acute pressures of the preceding two years.
El Kady's nine years at the helm of The United Bank spanned a highly turbulent chapter in Egyptian financial history. The bank and its peers navigated successive episodes of currency depreciation, a high-inflation crisis driven in large part by external shocks and accumulated fiscal imbalances, and the structural adjustment that accompanied the government's engagement with the International Monetary Fund under a multi-year support programme. That El Kady remained in post throughout this extended period of institutional and macroeconomic stress reflects a degree of stability at the bank's leadership level that was not universally replicated across the Egyptian banking sector during the same period.
FAYED'S EXPERIENCE ACROSS EGYPTIAN BANKING
Tarek Fayed brings a substantial and diverse track record in Egyptian financial services to his new role. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Banque du Caire for close to eight years, a period during which he led the bank through an expansion of its retail and small business lending portfolios, strengthened its capital position, and prepared the institution for a potential public offering. Prior to Banque du Caire, Fayed held senior positions at the Central Bank of Egypt, where he gained direct experience in monetary policy implementation, banking supervision, and the regulatory frameworks governing the sector, as well as at Citibank's Egyptian operations, where he was exposed to international banking standards, credit risk management practices, and global transaction banking structures.
The combination of central banking, regulatory, and commercial leadership experience across multiple major Egyptian institutions positions Fayed as an unusually well-rounded appointment for The United Bank. His familiarity with both the supervisory expectations of the CBE and the competitive dynamics of the retail and corporate banking market gives him a contextual depth that is relevant to managing a bank through the transition from a high-rate, high-inflation environment to one of falling rates and potentially expanding credit demand.
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES FOR THE UNITED BANK
Fayed has publicly identified four main pillars for The United Bank's strategic direction under his leadership, according to statements published by the bank's media relations team. The specific content and detail of those pillars was set out in communications reported on the bank's website, where Fayed outlined his plans for what he described as a new phase of growth for the institution. The strategic refresh arrives at a moment when Egypt's banking sector is entering an easing cycle of considerable pace and scale, with the CBE having cut its overnight deposit rate by a cumulative 525 basis points through August 2025, bringing it to 22%.
Lower benchmark rates will progressively erode the net interest margin advantage that Egyptian banks have benefited from in a prolonged high-rate environment, shifting the competitive emphasis towards loan volume growth, fee and commission income, and operating cost efficiency as the principal drivers of future profitability. For Fayed, the strategic task at The United Bank involves positioning the institution to capture lending growth as credit demand recovers, while maintaining the credit quality of a loan book that spans retail consumers, small and medium enterprises, and project finance transactions. Enterprise AM reported his formal appointment with reference to the EGX disclosure, providing the official regulatory basis for the change in leadership.