EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Ibrahim Shehata, Hesham Kamel, Mohamed Abed and Hamza Shehata, Shehata & Partners Law Firm
transfers. It sets out the rules and requirements with which technology companies must comply. The CBE actively supervises all payment sys - tem operators and payment service providers in Egypt. The CBE has the authority to impose spe - cific standards, controls or rules on any player if needed, particularly regarding how their systems work together, how their services are delivered and how their payment orders are handled. This also includes rules on interoperability between the different payment systems. 5.2 Regulation of Cross-Border The CBE regulations require most transactions between Egyptian individuals and businesses to be conducted within the country’s borders and exclusively in the national currency (EGP). How - ever, a few exceptions allow for foreign currency transactions under specific circumstances. Payments and Remittances General Rule: Payment in EGP Furthermore, Egyptian regulations restrict indi - viduals and entities from directly exchanging for - eign currencies or clearing between customer accounts of other currencies. Any such activity typically requires prior authorisation from the CBE to ensure compliance with the financial regulations concerned. Exception: Rules for Mobile Payment Systems for Individuals The CBE mandates specific requirements for receiving foreign currency transfers via mobile payment systems, whilst adhering to specific rules, as follows: • only individuals are eligible for such transfers, not businesses; • stringent monitoring ensures compliance with AML and CTF regulations;
• the banks set individual maximum amounts based on risk assessments, with the aim of protecting both the individual and the bank – by limiting the amount of foreign currency that can be transferred through mobile payments, authorities and financial institutions strive to prevent financial crimes and promote respon - sible financial practices; • the bank concerned takes the necessary steps to guarantee that the person making the transfer is the same user of the system and that their mobile phone account has been credited with EGP; • before the transfers are examined, the amounts of incoming international transfers should not be credited to the mobile phone account; and • it must be verified that the two transfer parties are not included on any national or interna - tional sanction lists. 6. Marketplaces, Exchanges and Trading Platforms 6.1 Permissible Trading Platforms The Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX) leverages a diverse set of trading platforms, including the X-Stream Trading System, which serves as the primary platform for both the main market and the SME market. Sub systems include the fol - lowing: • the Coding System registers investors and grants them individual identification codes used for trading within the market; • the Omnibus Accounts System aggregates orders from multiple investors into a single compound account – after the trading ses - sion, shares are reallocated to each investor based on their contribution and the average execution price;
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