EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mahmoud S. Bassiouny, Iman Nassar, Habiba Gamaleldin and Israa Mostafa, Matouk Bassiouny
Egypt’s CBE and Cryptocurrencies On 8 March 2023, the CBE issued a warning to Egyptian citizens against engaging in cryptocur - rency transactions, relevant to both retail and corporate investors. This warning underscores that cryptocurrency transactions remain unli - censed in the Egyptian market and are fraught with high risks. The key concerns highlighted include: high-risk exposure, limited regulation (namely the absence of supervision by central banks or any regulatory authority), price fluctua - tions, and their use in financial crimes and digital piracy.
total deposit portfolio, with a cap of EGP200 million; • prohibiting the granting of credit facilities to large corporations, excluding existing cus - tomers of medium enterprises, in the event their annual volume of activities exceeds the value determined by the CBE until their maturity, provided that the total value of such credit facilities does not exceed 20% of the bank’s total credit portfolio; • waiver of the aforementioned restrictions (percentages) during the first year of opera - tion; and • permitting the granting of credit facilities to large corporations without complying with the aforesaid regulatory requirements provided that the relevant entity (i) obtains the approval of the CBE; and (ii) increases its issued and paid capital to at least EGP4 billion or its equivalent for a joint-stock company, as opposed to no less than USD120 million or its equivalent in respect of the capital allocated to its branch counterpart.
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