Egypt Braces for New Standards of Internet Banking

Egypt’s Central Bank is currently holding intensive meetings with local banks, seeking to issue new regulations for ‘Internet Banking’ service, a source with knowledge of the matter told Amwal Al Ghad.

The source stated that the new regulations and standards shall ensure safe and secured internet banking services and comply with the Basel II’s rules. Yet, the source declined to disclose those measures until being finalised by the CBE.

The CBE had signed along with a group of global central banks an agreement to adopt the terms and regulations Basel II Act for capital adequacy.

Basel II comprises three ‘pillars’. The first deals with minimum capital requirements and specifies that banks hold a certain amount of capital proportional to their risks.

Internal risk management is the basis of the second pillar, ensuring that banks hedge against non-quantifiables such as operational risk, rather than solely on loans as was previously the case.

The third pillar deals with market discipline and obliges banks to meet tougher disclosure rules.

Meanwhile, Abdel Hamid Soliman – Chairman of IT Committee, Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB) said CBE has formed a new committee to adopt the new standards of internet banking services, which will be announced later within the coming period.

Moreover, Yehia El Agamy – Head of Retail Banking Division at Banque Misr – elaborated that the CBE is a step behind preparing the new standards regulating the internet banking. He added that banks operating in Egypt asked the CBE to adopt new applications and services for internet banking.