Cairo (APD) - The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to cancel its record's registration for the branches of Lebanon's Jammal Trust Bank, Sudan's al-Ahly Bank and Iraq's Rafidain Bank for failing to meet capital increase requirements, Egypt's Al-Ahram daily reported Wednesday.
The three branches failed to conform to the July 15 deadline of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to increase capital to $50 million - the capital increase required for offshore banks.
The cancellation from the central bank's record would mean that the three branches have to cease their operations in Egypt and have to call on both depositors and debtors to settle their accounts.
However, the central bank would allow Rafidain Bank branch to continue receiving transfers for Egyptians citizens and Egyptian companies working in Iraq.
Iraq's Rafidain Bank has previously requested from the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) to extend the deadline for increasing the capital of the bank's branch in Cairo and emphasized its commitment to gradually increase the capital to $50 million.
However, Hamdeya Mahmoud, deputy manager of the Rafidain Cairo branch, said mid-July that the first amount to be added to the bank's capital would be $5 million, up from the current capital of $2.6 million, provided that the CBE granted the bank the extra time. [FC]By Eman Wahby
© APD (Arab Press Digest) 2005
