Egypt Restores Digital Banking Services After Ramses Telecom Fire... ATMs Fully Functional
Egypt's banking system has fully restored its digital services, including ATM withdrawals, point-of-sale (POS) payments, and mobile banking applications, following a brief but widespread disruption caused by a major fire at the Ramses Central Telecommunications Center earlier this week.
The fire, which broke out Monday evening and continued through Tuesday morning, affected internet connectivity and telecom infrastructure in multiple areas across Cairo, Giza, and Alexandria, disrupting core systems that support Egypt's banking sector.
Digital Recovery Across All Banks
According to official statements from several banks and a report by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, ATM, POS, mobile banking, and internet banking services have now resumed normal operations across all 36 banks operating in Egypt.
During the height of the crisis, several banks temporarily lost access to their digital platforms, including ATM withdrawals and online payments, due to their reliance on internet links connected through the Ramses exchange.
However, by 9:00 am on July 8, telecom networks had stabilized through system rerouting and emergency bandwidth reallocation. Only one bank remained affected after that hour, but its issues were fully resolved by the end of the day.
'We worked around the clock, coordinating with telecom operators and central systems to restore services,' a senior banking executive told The Journal. 'Our teams responded rapidly to avoid major financial disruption.'
ATM and POS Services Fully Functional
Banks have confirmed that over 24,862 ATMs nationwide are once again fully operational, as are POS devices used for electronic payments. Most impacted systems were restored within 12–24 hours, especially in heavily affected areas.
Extended Banking Hours and Central Bank Response
To ease public pressure and meet growing demand for in-person services, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) authorized banks to extend their working hours. Some branches are now operating until 5:00 p.m., with select outlets in commercial hubs, shopping malls, and clubs staying open as late as 8:00 p.m., including on weekends.
Additionally, the CBE temporarily raised the daily cash withdrawal limit for individuals and businesses at bank branches from EGP 250,000 to EGP 500,000, to accommodate those unable to access digital services during the outage.
Instapay Services Unaffected
Egypt's real-time payment app, InstaPay, operated without interruption throughout the crisis. The platform, which facilitates instant money transfers, bill payments, and mobile top-ups, continued to process transactions normally due to alternative network redundancies and its independent digital architecture.
Lessons Learned and Future Planning
The incident has prompted many banks to review their disaster recovery protocols and reinforce backup connectivity measures, especially in areas dependent on single telecom sources. Banks are also investing in wider failover systems and cloud-based infrastructure.
'This event was a stress test,' said one IT director at a leading Egyptian bank. 'We now have proof of where our systems are strong and where we need improvement.'
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