Egypt’s CBE pilots eKYC solution for financial inclusion

The Central Bank of Egypt has completed the testing phase of a new electronic know-your-customer (KYC).

It has launched a pilot of the new service to aid financial inclusion in the country.

the central bank is also looking into the possibilities of deploying the new pilot on a blockchain-based system.

Alongside an announcement about the pilot, the central bank indicated that it would be issuing new instructions for banks in the county when it comes to their internet banking services.

These new mandates will go live in March 2020 and will update a set of rules that the regulator issues in November 2014.

32 banks in Egypt offer internet banking, with 28 having obtained a licence to issue mobile-based banking services.

There’s been plenty of fintech news out of Egypt in the past couple of years. In 2019 Swiss banking technology vendor had both a go-live and systems selection in the country.

Egyptian National Post opted for T24 Transact in December, while Banque du Caire went live on Temenos Infinity, replacing Oracle’s Flexcube. The Banque du Caire deal was originally signed in March 2018.

2018 also saw United Bank of Egypt complete a core banking revamp with Finastra. At the tail end of the year Commercial International Bank created the country’s first venture capital firm focused on investment in fintech start-ups.