EG Bank built Freely for freelancers banks ignored — and won Effie MENA's Grand Prix

Egypt's fast-growing freelance workforce hit a wall at traditional banks: with no employer and no salary slip, freelancers could not prove income, so no credit card, no loan, no financial identity — economically active but financially invisible.

EG Bank made freelancers its first-ever dedicated segment with Freely: a credit card, a personal loan and car financing, underwritten not by a salary slip but by invoices, project contracts, social media and a working portfolio. The product's logic said freelance income is bankable.

The launch was a campaign, not a form letter: a humorous TV film aired in Ramadan 2024 starring Raouf, the character from the bank's 2017 'sees you as an adult' work — now a freelancer with no rights and no job name — supported by OOH across Cairo.

The bet on a neglected segment won the Grand Prix at Effie MENA 2024 plus two Golds — for banks, finance and insurance, and for innovative product launch — the campaign's third major award.

Accept freelance income as proof of creditworthiness

It attacked a real exclusion — proof of income — instead of advertising to people who could already bank elsewhere.

Product and story said the same thing: this bank treats freelance income as real and the freelancer as an adult.

Humour let a stigmatised financial experience be discussed openly and gave the brand a distinctive voice.

A segment banks ignore is not unbankable, just unverified: change what counts as proof and you own a market. Humour made neglected freelancers feel seen, and effectiveness juries agreed.

Freely made EG Bank the first Egyptian bank with a dedicated freelancer proposition, and the Effie MENA sweep became its effectiveness proof. The bank kept expanding the offer — later lifting financing up to EGP 750,000 and the card limit to EGP 100,000 — and kept the Raouf universe running across Ramadan seasons.