Egyptian economist Hani Abul-Fotouh said that the withdrawal of foreign currency from outside the country using Egyptian bank cards is not a new matter and happens from time to time.
During a telephone interview with “TeN” channel, Abul-Fotouh added: “There are groups that open accounts in Egyptian banks and send bank cards with travelers abroad, and then those who are abroad make daily withdrawals up to the maximum amount of foreign currency, and the money is deducted in Egyptian currency at the official exchange rate.”
He warned that this is manipulation and bypassing banks to obtain foreign currency in a fraudulent way.
Banks will monitor, but they will not be able to prevent customers from using bank cards abroad.
Abul-Fotouh said that banks monitor frequent use of cards, and ff there is more than one transaction per day or repeated within two days, then the matter is an alarm for the bank that there is fraud. The banks are then required to activate close monitoring mechanisms in order to prevent such fraudulent operations.
Government banks in Egypt decided, a few days ago, to toughen limits for withdrawing foreign currencies denominated in the local currency for cash withdrawals and purchases outside Egypt, in a step that was repeated earlier in the year.
