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Egypt's central bank approves CIB-Citigroup deal -statement

CAIRO (Reuters) - Commercial International Bank (CIB) said on Tuesday it had received central bank approval to buy Citigroup's retail business in Egypt. The purchase includes about $140 million of the U.S. bank's Egypt assets, $190 million worth of deposits and nearly 100,000 accounts, CIB said in June when the deal was announced. The deal will add 80,000 credit card holders to CIB's existing 240,000, and will expand the bank's consumer lending business by 10 percent, the company's chief executive said at the time. Citigroup said last October that it was pulling out of consumer banking in 11 markets, including Egypt and Japan, to cut costs. The sale of the Egypt consumer business had attracted interest from lenders across the Middle East interested in building exposure to Egypt's recovering economy.