This book investigates the efficiency of financial intermediation in the Egyptian banking market by determining the variables affecting the behavior of the interest-rate spread in Egypt for the period 1984-2007. It determines the factors behind the relative inefficiency in the intermediation process in Egypt as reflected in the wide interest rate spread. The analysis focuses on the private sector banks that include three types of banks: commercial banks (PSCB), business and investment banks (BIB), and branches of foreign banks (BFB). Panel data of the banks is used to formally investigate...