State-owned banks halt Qatari riyal trading

CAIRO – 5 June 2017: State-owned Egyptian banks National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Banque du Caire have stopped dealing with the Qatari riyal (QAR) in Monday transactions, websites of banks showed.

Moreover, Reuters reported that some Egyptian banks have stopped banking transactions with Qatari banks.

The move comes in response to the decision issued early Monday from six Arab countries, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia to cut diplomatic ties with Qatar.

At the time of writing, Banque Misr set QAR exchange rate at LE 4.9 for buying and LE 4.96 for selling, while the NBE and Banque du Caire offered no price for the Qatari currency on their screens.

It is still not clear whether Egypt-based private banks would take the same approach. Customer Service of the Commercial International Bank (CIB) told Egypt Today that they did not receive a formal decision from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) regarding the matter.

The Qatari riyal has recorded an average of LE 4.99 Monday morning, slightly up from LE4.94 Sunday.

The general division of foreign exchange firms in the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce said they received instructions to suspend dealings with the Qatari riyal Monday, deputy head of the division Ali el-Hariri told Al-Watan News.