Egyptian banks have injected EGP2 billion (USD225 million) in favour of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)'s low-income mortgage initiative by end of March 2016, according to Mortgage Finance Fund (MFF) Chairman, May Abdel Hamid. Abdel Hamid said that MFF had pumped EGP500 million as part of CBE's mortgage initiative. During 2014, CBE has launched an initiative worth EGP10 billion (USD1.4 billion) to stimulate the mortgage sector and finance housing acquisitions for low- and average-income households. In March 2014, four local Egyptian banks, namely National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Du Caire, Banque Misr and Housing and Development Bank (HDB), have signed agreements with MFF worth EGP8.5 billion at an annual interest rate between 8% and 7%. CBE has amended the mortgage finance initiative to provide an opportunity for those who earn less than EGP1,400 per month to benefit from the initiative at a discounted annual interest rate of 5% instead of 7%. Moreover, the new amendments have introduced a new segment "privileged average income", that targets youth wishing to acquire a house through mortgage finance. CBE has stated that the rate of return for this funding will be higher than that of other groups benefiting from the initiative, at an annual rate of 10.5%, provided that the maximum monthly income does not exceed EGP15,000 per person and EGP20,000 per family. Another condition is that the maximum price of the financed unit for that category does not exceed EGP950,000. (Amwal Al Ghad) Housing & Dev. Bank: EGP19.43 as of 05 April 2016, Rating: Buy, FV: EGP29.65 per share, MCap: USD277 million, HDBK EY / HDBK.CA