The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced issuing new rules for licensing, registering, controlling, and supervising digital banks.
To conduct all banking services except funding large-scale firms, the new licensing requirements require digital banks to have a minimum issued and paid-up capital of EGP 2 billion ($64.6 million).
The new guidelines also allow digital banks to raise their capital to EGP 4 billion ($129.3 million) in order to provide funding to major firms.
Furthermore, according to the CBE’s new guidelines, the main stakeholder in digital banks must be a financial institution with a portfolio of related projects and operations and a holding of at least 30% of total capital.
The new laws also require digital banks to give a full fiscal assessment that includes the clientele they target and the goods they offer, as well as their information technology and cybersecurity preparations.
Financial inclusion
In 2022, the CBE launched its financial inclusion strategy for 2022-2025 to promote financial inclusion in the country.
The CBE announced last month that financial inclusion rates improved between 2016 and 2022 by 147 percent.
The overall number of citizens who have accounts that enable them to conduct financial transactions – including bank accounts, Egypt Post accounts, mobile e-wallets, or prepaid cards – has now reached 42.3 million, which represents 64.8 percent of Egyptians above the age of 16 (65.4 million citizens), added the CBE.
