A story of entrepreneurship for the books: Talaat Harb was a man moved by his love for his home country, a driven entrepreneur that built an empire in Egypt. Harb, known as the father of Egyptian economy, was a pioneer whose legacy lives up until this day. A visionary, Harb, a capable financier with a law degree, spearheaded the establishment of Banque Misr, Egypt’s first national bank with Egyptian financing in 1920. Harb initially obtained his law degree in 1889 before starting his career as an economist. The start-up capital for Banque Misr was EGP 80,000 (USD 5,000) with the idea of creating national savings into an investment. A decade later, the bank grew to be ranked as the best Mandated Lead Arranger and the third best Bookrunner across Africa in Bloomberg’s Global Syndicated Loans League Tables for the first half of 2018. Today, Banque Misr’s geographical outreach has put it on the maps, with paid-up capital amounting to EGP 15 billion (USD 1 billion). The bank has more than 620 electronically integrated local branches, as well as five branches in the United Arab Emirates and one branch in France….
