The Central Bank of Egypt reinstates fees on ATM withdrawals as of July 1st

Arab Finance: The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has decided to reinstate fees on cash withdrawal transactions from automated teller machines (ATM), setting the maximum fees for an off-us transaction at EGP 5, according to a circular on June 29^th.

The CBE has also raised the ceiling of off-us cash withdrawals from ATMs to EGP 4,000 per transaction.

The bank has exempted clients (only natural persons) from all expenses and commissions imposed on all EGP money transfers through electronic channels (internet, mobile banking, and InstaPay applications) from July 1^st until December 31^st.

The issuance of electronic wallets is free, however, a pricing policy is being applied on transfer services to only natural persons via mobile wallets, with all clients being exempted from the transfer fees on the first transaction monthly.

Afterward, fees on transfers of natural persons through mobile wallets have been set at a maximum of EGP 1 per transaction as of the second transaction each month for clients of the service provider (on-us transactions).

Moreover, the CBE has instated a commission of 0.5% maximum of the transfer value of not more than EGP 10 per off-us transaction.

Meanwhile, the issuance of contactless prepaid cards has been exempted from fees and banks shall waive fees for private sector vendors’ transactions conducted through contactless payment instruments issued by banks operating in Egypt.

Issuers of contactless cards shall return interchange fees to banks within the mentioned period.

Furthermore, the CBE has exempted the micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) from fees related to the activation of e-commerce transactions for the first time as of July 1st until December 31st, provided that quick response (QR) codes shall be activated and national payment cards (Meeza) are accepted through applications and websites.