Egypt's Central Bank extends decision to cancel ATM cash withdrawal fees until end of December

CAIRO – 23 June 2021: The Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to extend the validity of some of the decisions previously taken to confront the coronavirus pandemic, for a new period of 6 months, from July 1 to December 31, 2021.

This comes within the framework of implementing the strategy of the National Payments Council headed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, President of the Republic, and a continuation of the proactive efforts of the Central Bank of Egypt in facing the repercussions of the “Corona” pandemic, which aims to revitalize and protect the national economy and preserve the gains of economic reform and stability of the banking sector.

The decisions that were extended for the new period included continuing to exempt customers from all expenses and commissions related to bank transfer services in the Egyptian pound, issuing electronic wallets for free, and canceling all commissions and fees for transfers between mobile phone accounts and transfers between any mobile phone account and any bank account, as well as Issuance of prepaid cards to citizens for free, provided that these cards are contactless once the bank starts issuing this type of cards, and cancel fees and commissions for cash withdrawal operations, provided that the card issuing bank bears those fees and commissions, and this does not include credit card returns.

The decisions that have been extended come within the framework of the Central Bank’s keenness to ensure the continuity of the banks’ work in light of the continuous follow-up of the banking sector, and with the aim of providing more facilitation to citizens and encouraging them to continue to use electronic payment methods and channels, in a way that supports the state’s central bank orientation to transform into a less dependent society on banknotes.

These decisions also included continuing to cancel fees and commissions related to cash withdrawals for pension exchange cards, and the Central Bank bears the expenses of cash withdrawals for these cards from ATMs, whose value ranges from approximately 60 million to 70 million pounds during the aforementioned period.

With regard to electronic collection via the Internet, the decisions also included the continuation of canceling all fees for activating electronic collection services via the Internet (E-Commerce) in order to reduce the financial burdens on companies by exempting them from the expenses that were required from them to activate these services such as (the expenses that are paid once to activate the service monthly service charges, and additional service charges).

The Central Bank of Egypt confirms that it will continue to closely follow all developments on the global and local arenas, to intervene immediately by taking appropriate measures to protect the national economy, revitalize the market, and maintain banking and monetary stability.