InstaPay to potentially launch remittance services in Jordan, UAE and Saudi

CAIRO - 12 November 2023: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)’s InstaPay announced that it has reached initial agreements with the central banks of the UAE and Jordan for payment remittance services in the first half of 2024.

The CBE is also in advanced talks with the central bank in Saudi Arabia to allow InstaPay users to transfer money from banks in these countries to their Egyptian bank accounts, Asharq Bloomberg reported.

The CBE is still studying whether remittances transferred via InstaPay will be credited to Egyptian accounts in local or foreign currency.

InstaPay is the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE)’s payment service app and reported in March 2023 that it has completed over LE 112.7 billion worth of transactions in 2022, with 2.16 million registered users carrying out around 20.3 million transactions.

The payment service app will provide financial transfers from banks operating in those three countries, which are the densest in terms of the number of Egyptian workers abroad, to bank accounts in Egypt using the application.

The Egyptian government seeks to increase remittances from Egyptians working abroad, which fell by 30.8 percent to $22.1 billion during the fiscal year ending in June 2023.