{"id":4835,"date":"2020-03-25T19:03:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T19:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.paymentfacilitator.com\/?p=4835"},"modified":"2022-04-15T11:27:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-15T17:27:45","slug":"egypts-central-bank-looks-to-accelerate-digital-payments-in-response-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/archive\/egypts-central-bank-looks-to-accelerate-digital-payments-in-response-to-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Egypt\u2019s Central Bank Looks to Accelerate Digital Payments in Response to COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the world reacts to health experts\u2019 advice meant to\navoid spreading the novel coronavirus, the need to pay for goods and services\nwithout making contact with others is driving a global shift to digital\npayments. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Governments have been responding to the need for distance by\ncalling for increased reliance on digital payment and banking services. The\nCentral Bank of Egypt (CBE) recently released\nguidance<\/a> to that country\u2019s banks intended to reduce the cost of electronic\npayments usage to consumers and merchants while allowing for increased volumes.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the CBE is increasing daily and monthly limits for\ntransactions made via mobile phone and through contactless means. For\ncontactless prepaid cards, for example, the bank is doubling the limit for\ntransactions that can be completed without entering a PIN. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central bank is also streamlining procedures banks\nshould use to verify the identities of both new and existing customers. It is\nallowing banks to open new accounts for existing customers using already\ncompleted KYC information. And for new customers, it\u2019s setting lower monthly\ntransaction limits and requiring them to complete any due diligence procedures\nwithin three months of opening an account. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CBE has also directed banks to activate QR code and\n\u201cRequest to Pay\u201d services \u2013 the ability for a merchant to send a payment\nrequest to a customer\u2019s digital wallet \u2013 for all merchants using POS terminals and\nto inform their customers about the availability of these services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, the central bank is mandating removal of any\ncharges for the use of digital wallets, and it is exempting all merchants from\npaying any fees for POS and QR code transactions for six months, expecting the\nbanks to absorb these costs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egypt\u2019s new rules come at a time when digital payments usage\nfor some types of transactions is surging in response to the virus in locations\naround the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Wall Street Journal cited<\/a>\na McKinsey & Co. estimate that Italy, which has been hit hard by the virus,\nhas seen an 81% increase in ecommerce transactions since February. Online\npayment platforms in South Africa are also reporting<\/a> increased\nvolumes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the need and the demand, other governments\nhave looked to similar strategies to the CBE response \u2013 raising limits and\nreducing costs for consumers and merchants. For example, UK Finance, which\nrepresents banking and finance companies in the UK, recently announced<\/a>\nan increase in spending limits for contactless card payments. The Bank of\nJamaica also said\nit plans to waive transaction fees associated with digital payments through the\nend of the month. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the world reacts to health experts\u2019 advice meant to avoid spreading the novel coronavirus, the need to pay for goods and services without making contact with others is driving a global shift to digital payments. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1015],"tags":[150,158,192,195,229,473],"class_list":["post-4835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive","tag-cbe","tag-central-bank-of-egypt","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid","tag-digital-payments","tag-kyc"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4835"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8608,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4835\/revisions\/8608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/infinicept.com\/payment-facilitator\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}