Egypt’s Savings Vacuum Shows Struggle for Banks: Islamic Finance

Murad Hassan, who owns a stationary shop in Cairo, doesn’t keep his money in a bank, and says expanding Shariah-compliant finance under Egypt’s new Islamic government won’t change his mind.

The 43-year-old father of three rarely has more than $500 in excess cash, which he uses to stock up on school supplies for his store on a street lined with small family businesses in Matariya, a low- to medium-income neighborhood in northeast Cairo. “It’s never a large enough sum to consider doing more with it,” he said in an phone interview Oct. 21.