The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) issued directives on Wednesday to the banks operating in the Egyptian market regarding protecting clients’ rights. This was the first time that such directives are issued in the Egyptian market.
The concept of protecting clients’ rights, according to the CBE, includes establishing clear rules that control the relations between banks and their clients to ensure justice and transparency and secrecy of clients’ data. Additionally, a mechanism will be put forward to deal with clients’ complaints and spread banking and financial awareness among clients.
According to a statement issued by the CBE, these directives were finalised on 2 August 2018 and sent to banks for discussion. After reviewing the banks’ comments, the final version of the directives was issued on 13 February.
The CBE stressed that protecting the rights of clients in banks is one of the main elements of achieving financial inclusion, which is one of the CBE’s main priorities currently. He pointed out that banks will have a period of one year to adjust their conditions to suit the new directives.
The bank added that the issuance of these instructions comes in the framework of the CBE’s plan to develop the banking sector through the implementation of the best international practices, which require strengthening the clients’ confidence in the banking sector and enhance competition among banks generally.
According to the CBE’s directives, the concept of protecting the rights of clients is having a clear regulatory framework that defines the relationship between the providers of banking services and their users, in order to ensure that customers obtain their rights in terms of fairness, transparency and confidentiality.
