Executing transfers between accounts in the same bank within two hours, transfers to accounts with another bank, within a maximum of three hours
Within the framework of implementing the strategy of the National Council for Payments headed by His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and in continuation of the efforts of the Central Bank of Egypt in strengthening the infrastructure of payment systems and developing payment services, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank issued in its session held on December 27, 2020 new instructions to banks that include the necessity to implement bank transfers in Egyptian pounds in The shortest possible time and in support of the state’s drive to transform into the digital economy, while giving preferential benefits to transfers that take place electronically to encourage them to use electronic channels.
The instructions also included that banks receive customer requests submitted during the opening hours of the branches or through electronic channels around the clock, provided that transfer requests for customer accounts with the same bank are executed within two hours of the time of submitting the request, and with regard to requests for transfer to accounts of another bank. , The execution shall be made within a maximum of three hours from the time of receiving the customer’s request, and for customer requests that are received to the banks after two o’clock in the afternoon, the transfer order is executed as soon as possible to the beneficiary’s bank and within a maximum of three hours since the start of the next business day. Those mentioned are any operations that require credit approvals, or any suspected operations, such as money laundering or terrorist financing, as well as any other risks that the bank sees.
These instructions come within the framework of the continuous efforts to develop the banking sector and increase the level of competitiveness of Egyptian banks, in a way that helps to provide the highest level of service to customers, and speedy completion of financial transactions in the least possible time, while motivating customers to take advantage of the preferential advantages of electronic financial transactions, and the technological infrastructure. The force that was established and developed during the last period in light of the country’s efforts to rely on digital payment systems.
It should be noted that the Central Bank of Egypt canceled commissions on bank transfers for all customers until the end of June of 2021, and the Central Bank instructed banks, after the end of that period, to cancel the commissions that the beneficiary’s bank collects for incoming transfers and reduce the cost of the bank tariff collected from customers when using payment methods. Electronic data for those determined for paper transfers provided through the branches.
The instructions also touched on the need to provide clients with evidence of confirming the implementation of the transfer, through any of the means available to the bank, with an emphasis on taking into account the disclosure of commissions and expenses related to the remittance service by all possible means in accordance with what was stated in this regard in the law of the Central Bank and the banking system and special instructions To protect the rights of bank clients.
The directives also included the activation of reliance on the international bank account number IBAN as a prelude to obliging banks to use it in the implementation of all transfers at a later stage, with the necessity to finalize notifying clients of their international bank account numbers as soon as possible.
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