The trading of US dollar among banks on the first day of implementing the inter bank mechanism witnessed limited transactions on Sunday. The highest price of the US currency registered EGP 16.55.
This is the first time banks are allowed to implement the decision of setting the exchange rate, after the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) decided to float the Egyptian pound on Thursday.
Through the inter bank mechanism, banks can claim their own prices for buying and selling the US dollar to the Egyptian pound, based on the dollar liquidity each bank possesses.
Bankers and officials met on Friday to agree on the rules for trading hard cash, Bloomberg reported according to four sources who attended the meeting.
The inter bank system for foreign currency trading was adopted in Egypt prior to December 2012, before the state decided to pose periodic tenders during which the CBE sold dollars to banks, in light of the fall of hard cash resources.
The inter bank system, which had been followed in previous years, was governed by a price scope set by the CBE. Banks were not, at the time, free to set the price based on supply and demand, unlike the current system.
