Parliament approves definitions of non-monetary payment law

CAIRO – 25 February 2019: The House of Representatives approved the definition article of issuing a law regulating the use of non-monetary means of payment during the morning plenary session held on Sunday.

The definitions included non-cash payment methods, which are all the means of payment that result in an addition to one of the beneficiary's bank accounts such as deposit and transfer, and credit and debit cards. Payment will take place through mobile phones or other means approved by the governor of the Central Bank of Egypt.

The bank account, according to the article, is a contract according to which a legal person agrees with a bank registered with the Central Bank or one of the authorized entities to initiate the deposit or credit activity in the Arab Republic of Egypt to open an account which is used to record all transactions for payment, receipt and settlement of mutual payments in cash or through electronic cash units, such as: current account, savings account, time deposit account, mobile payment account, credit card and prepaid accounts.

Moreover, the article defined cash financing as financing by banks, mortgage finance companies, finance leasing or factoring, microfinance companies and associations, or any other authorized entity to work in this area.

During the discussions, the representative of the government stressed that throughout the preparation stages of the law, a gradual shift towards generalization of non-monetary payment to avoid any crisis in the market was targeted.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdel Aal confirmed that this law is not the end but the beginning of the generalization of non-monetary transactions, pointing out that it might be gradually applied, especially in light of the conditions in Egypt.

For his part, Parliament member Said Teama asked about the mechanism of securing the non-monetary payment process. The representative of the central bank governor replied that there is a technical security system that will be announced by mid-year by the CBE