Central Bank of Egypt to finance purchase of 100k POS machines this year
CBE finances purchase of 100k POS machines: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) said it will finance banks’ purchase and distribution of 100k new POS machines this year as part of a wider plan to expand the use of e-payment services, according to a circular (pdf). The CBE will give incentives to banks that promote POS payments with a bonus equivalent to 0.5% of the value of the total transactions processed via their POS for three months.
Central bank to promote QR Codes: Banks that allow clients to pay bills and transfers by swiping a QR code would be granted a 0.5% bonus of their total transactions while merchants will be awarded EGP 3k for every 150 new QR codes scanned until the end of December. This comes in tandem with the Finance Ministry beginning to collect government payments through QR codes that work in a similar way to contactless cards: either by having the customer scan a bill code to process the payment or the merchant scanning the customer’s code. Finance Minister Mohamed Maait said (pdf) would be faster and safer than using ATM machines and bank cards.