Egyptian banks ease foreign currency, credit card restrictions - Economy

Al-Ahram Weekly

2 days ago

Major Egyptian banks have raised the foreign currency withdrawal limit for travellers to $10,000 or its equivalent in other currencies, according to notifications sent to customers on Tuesday.
The banks include the state-owned National Bank of Egypt (NBE) and Bank Misr, as well as the Commercial International Bank (CIB).
The previous withdrawal limits ranged between $2,000 and $5,000, depending on the bank and card type.
Travellers can now withdraw the full $10,000 in cash before departure by presenting a valid flight ticket and visa. The new limit is in line with the country's maximum legal allowance for outbound travelers.
Meanwhile, several banks are also lowering their foreign currency markup fees on credit card transactions. Both the NBE and CIB have cut their fees from 5 percent to 3 percent.
Bank Misr has also announced a similar reduction to 3 percent, effective 13 August 2025.
Additionally, Bank Misr has increased its foreign currency sale limit for travellers to $10,000, up from $5,000. The Arab African International Bank (AAIB) has also followed suit, raising its overseas credit card usage limit to a similar amount.
In a related development, the Central Bank of Egypt scrapped requirements to verify a customer's travel abroad when using credit cards, citing current market conditions.
Since late 2022, Egyptian banks have imposed strict limits on the use of credit and debit cards abroad to stem the outflow of foreign currency amid a deepening dollar shortage, a rapidly expanding parallel market, and mounting pressure on the pound.
The most significant restrictions were introduced in 2023, when monthly overseas spending caps were drastically reduced. In some cases, these limits were as low as $50–$100 for regular customers and only a few hundred dollars for premium cardholders.
Markup fees were also raised to 5%, and banks were required to verify customer travel before approving significant foreign currency transactions.
These measures were closely tied to successive devaluations of the Egyptian pound in March and October 2022 and January 2023, which saw the currency lose over half its value against the dollar.
With the pound's sharp depreciation of driving demand for hard currency, authorities sought to close loopholes that allowed customers to obtain dollars at the official rate via card use.
The easing of these restrictions began only after the March 2024 devaluation, coupled with major foreign investment inflows, which improved dollar liquidity and allowed banks to gradually restore overseas card limits.
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