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Sunday, 10 January 2021

Banks will need to transfer funds within hours

Banks are now required to complete EGP transfers within a shorter timeframe under directions (pdf) from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE). Transfers inside a bank need to be complete within two hours while transfers from one bank in Egypt to another will take up to three hours. Requests put in after 2pm or over the weekend will be required to be complete within the same amount of time on the following working day.

The CBE has given banks three months to comply with the new requirements, with the grace period to be utilized to increase efficiency and improve infrastructure. The new requirements will help boost customer confidence in Egyptian banks while also highlighting banking as an alternative to paper transactions.

Other new requirements:

  • Bank fees on electronic transactions need to be less than what the bank charges for the same service executed with physical currency.
  • IBANs will be necessary for use in all transactions.
  • Straight-through processing (STP) must be enacted for outgoing remittances. STP will ensure faster processing times; banks have six months to comply.

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