Mohamed Farid, chairperson of Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), stated that legislative and regulatory developments, combined with fintech expansion, have significantly broadened access to non-banking financial activities while empowering youth and women in capital markets, insurance, and investments. Speaking at the Top 50 Women STEM and Future Innovation Summit, he highlighted the complex challenges in public service and the need for ongoing education and engagement with international experiences to effectively communicate with global investors.
Mohamed Farid, chairperson of the Financial Regulatory Authority (FRA), explained that public service grapples with increasingly complex challenges due to overlapping interests and numerous stakeholders, necessitating continuous efforts backed by robust scientific and professional frameworks. He emphasized the importance of lifelong learning and drawing from international experiences, especially in advanced economies, to comprehend markets and engage effectively with investors and global institutions using a common professional language. Farid shared that he pursued this by obtaining four master's degrees to update his knowledge and stay aligned with global financial developments.
He addressed a common public misconception about the workings of public institutions, stressing the need to engage citizens by explaining reforms and their daily impacts, which requires strong academic foundations and accumulated professional experience. The FRA, he noted, is closely tied to citizens' lives through its oversight of sectors like compulsory and supplementary motor insurance, private insurance and pension funds, insurance brokerage, actuarial services, and investment funds.
Farid spotlighted the FRA's success with gold investment funds launched in 2023, attracting EGP 4-5 billion from nearly 250,000 investors, many starting with small amounts, fulfilling the goal of investment democracy. He recalled Egypt's insurance sector in 1999, with premiums at just 0.9% of GDP, compared to 5-7% in emerging markets and 12-15% in advanced ones, amid shortages of actuaries and qualified personnel.
The sector stagnated for years until Farid's appointment in 2022, shifting focus to updating educational curricula rather than relying solely on traditional regulations. The FRA's core objectives are maintaining financial stability and expanding market size. Understanding younger generations like Gen Z and Alpha drove Law No. 5 of 2022 on technology in non-banking finance, easing youth access to stock markets; new investor codes rose from 25,000-29,000 annually to 340,000 in 2023, 240,000 in 2024, and 281,000 by October 2025.
In insurance, reforms addressed capital gaps via the Unified Insurance Law, raising minimum capital from EGP 60 million to EGP 750 million after two to three years of discussions. Consequently, three to four companies now offer digital comprehensive motor insurance for new vehicles. These changes have increased demand for supervisory functions like internal audit, governance, and compliance across 3,900 supervised entities. Farid highlighted the FRA's Financial Services Institute for training, regulation of third-party administrators for healthcare, and empowering women and youth in science, technology, and innovation as pillars for a resilient financial future.