The Cool Headmaster

Welcome to the 90th edition of ፍራንክ Digest!

Your weekly brief on all things Finance and Investing. Quick, enjoyable reads for busy professionals in 5 minutes or less.

Here’s what’s coming your way:

• ⚡️BUZZ: Banks Get Their Groove Back

• 🎂 ESX: Born To Trade

• 🖼️ Big Picture

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BUZZ: NBE Gives Power Back To The Banks

Banking

Imagine the Power Rangers without their suits or gadgets or Batman without his utility belt?

What are we left with? A group of nosy teenagers running around shouting ‘morphing time!’ on one end and a billionaire with no toys to play with…

That’s sad but that’s where Hollywood comes in: providing the imagination and letting action men and gals be heroes.

Now replace ‘Hollywood’ with National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) and ‘men and gals’ with Ethiopian banks. 

So what is our famous headmaster up to this time around?

Well, it has issued a directive stating that banks can paint their logos pink and start selling La-Z-Boy sofas to make up the money lost on non-performing loans. Well this can’t be more false, but we’re here to have a bit of fun here with the jokes, aren’t we 😉?

No, the real tea ☕ here is actually Directive No. NBE/INT/13/2026 which states that, effective January 9, 2026, banks will now be allowed to freely set their own interest rates across all loan and deposit products.

We won’t judge if you pop the champagne bottle 🍾 that wasn’t used during your NYE celebrations because this is effectively ending decades of very tight rate policy control.

So, free market here we come? 

Let’s hope so: that minimum 7 percent yield on your deposit -> Now determined by your favorite bank. Loan rates are under the bank’s control as well. 

So much power and yet, the NBE, in typical headmaster fashion is still on the periphery, instructing the men and women on each bank board take accountability with two key responsibilities: