Banque Misr cancels limits on credit cards usage abroad

CAIRO – 9 May 2017: Egypt's second-largest state bank, Banque Misr, has canceled limits on Egyptians' use of credit cards abroad, the bank’s CEO Mohamed el-Etreby said on Tuesday.

He said that the $8,000 ceiling that was put on the highest category of credit cards last year has been eliminated.

Banking sources said that the step came in light of an improvement in the banks’ resources of foreign currency, expecting that more banks will follow suit in the coming period.

Earlier, the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and the Commercial International Bank (CIB) had cancelled limits on the usage of credit cards abroad.

During the last year, banks had introduced limits on the usage of debit and credit cards abroad, in response to the Central Bank of Egypt’s (CBE) instructions to local banks to control and regulate the use of these cards abroad, in an attempt to stop their use for illegal currency trading purposes.

Since the Central Bank’s decision to float the Egyptian pound in November last year, local banks have received $19.2 billion in foreign currencies.