To advance financial inclusion in Egypt, the county’s central bank has concluded the testing phase of an innovative electronic know-your-customer (eKYC) project and has, in addition, pioneered a pilot service.
Customers are now able to open a bank account without the need to visit a banking hall or speak with a banking agent.
Following on the heels of the announcement of the pilot scheme, the central bank stated that it would be releasing new regulations for banks within the country as regards their internet banking services.
While 32 banks in Egypt offer internet banking, 28 of these banks are licensed to issue mobile banking services.
All proposed rules are expected to be enforceable from March 2020 when they are expected to go live. This new set of regulations are intended as an upgrade on existing regulations issued by Egypt’s Central Bank in 2014.
Local news publication, AL-Mal News, suggests that the Egyptian Central Bank is interested in a possible application of the new pilot to a block-chain based network.
This adds to the numerous other fintech news that have been coming out of Egypt in recent years. A Swiss banking technology vendor provided a go-live and systems selection in the country in 2019.
Others include the Egyptian National Post, which, in December, opted for T24 Transact. Also, Banque du Caire, which went live on Temenos Infinity, replaced Oracle’s Flexcube in a deal that was initially signed in March 2018.
The year 2018 also witnessed a core banking revamp with Finastra completed by the United Bank of Egypt. Towards the end of the year, Commercial International Bank floated the first venture capital firm in the country with investment in fintech start-ups as their focus.
