07:56 PM
Thursday, December 22, 2022
I wrote – Manal Al-Masry:
The Central Bank of Egypt stressed that banks should notify customers by any means of communication that it is prohibited to misuse credit cards and direct debit cards, especially for customers who do not leave the country.
The bank stated – in a statement issued on Thursday evening – that this comes within the framework of what it notes that some credit cards and direct debit cards are used in operations outside Egypt, despite the presence of customers holding these cards inside the country.
The Central Bank added: “It is prohibited to request currency procurement for purposes of traveling abroad without leaving the country, and banks must review a sample of the uses of these cards that took place outside the country, as well as requests to procure currency for travel purposes since the first of December 2022.”
The Central confirmed that in the event that the bank notices the presence of increasingly frequent uses that contradict the nature of the customer’s uses and that indicates suspicion of the customer’s misuse of the card or the currency that was procured, especially in the event that there are indications that the customer has not left the country, then the bank must inform the central administration to collect Credit risks in the Central Bank with full data on these customers, and any other cases that appear in such a way as of its date on an ongoing basis, so that the Central Bank can take the necessary measures with the concerned authorities to verify whether the customer has traveled or not.
He added, “In the event that the customer has not traveled or misused the cards, the bank will be directed to stop dealing with the card and inform the customer of that, and inform the Egyptian Credit Bureau (iScore) to take the necessary measures in this regard.”