Digital Payments & Fintech - Egypt

The Central Bank of Egypt is the payments regulator under the Central Bank & Banking System Law No. 194 of 2020, which for the first time addressed cashless payments, payment service providers, payment system operators, digital banks and e-money. It entered into force on 16 September 2020.

In June 2025 the CBE issued official rules for licensing and registration of payment system operators and payment service providers, covering cash deposit/withdrawal, fund transfers, issuance of payment instruments, EGP remittances, plus payment-initiation and account-information services. A 12-month transition period (ending June 2026) lets existing operators regularize.

A payment institution must be an Egyptian joint-stock company dedicated to payment services, with minimum capital of EGP 30m (category A), EGP 10m (category B) or EGP 20m for AIS/PIS providers, plus a bank guarantee equal to 2% of paid-up capital. In September 2025 the CBE added governance, internal-control and fit-and-proper criteria for key officials.

The CBE launched the national Instant Payment Network (IPN) in March 2022; the InstaPay app was the first mobile access point. The IPN connects all participating banks and e-money issuers via the domestic Meeza card scheme, processing over EGP 2.9 trillion across 1.5 billion transactions by end-2024.

The Financial Regulatory Authority regulates non-banking fintech under Law No. 5 of 2022 (in force 9 February 2022), licensing digital consumer-finance platforms (covering BNPL-type lending). Contracts must disclose finance amount, term, installments and interest; FRA decrees in 2023 set licensing/regulatory detail and a temporary startup-license track.

Licensing is split by activity: the CBE supervises bank-side payments, e-money and payment institutions, while the FRA supervises non-banking financial technology (consumer finance, BNPL, insurtech). Firms must identify which regulator's regime their activity falls under.