As part of the efforts of the Central Bank of Egypt to support the transition to a society less reliant on banknotes and stimulate the expansion of the use of electronic payment tools, the launch of the payment card tokenization service on mobile phone applications and the activation of the Apple Pay service were completed as a first stage, as an important step towards… Encouraging citizens to rely on mobile phones to complete digital financial transactions.
The service was launched in cooperation with the companies that hold the international acceptance mark (Visa and MasterCard) and the national payment system “Meeza”, as well as with Apple, the manufacturer of smart phones, and in coordination with a number of banks and many providers of mobile payment applications, as well as financial technology companies, which contributes to achieving Integration between international and local systems to ensure the expansion of the scope of digital payment services in Egypt, and enhance customer confidence in using electronic payments.
On this occasion, Hassan Abdullah, Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, stated that “launching the payment card encoding service on mobile phone applications comes within the framework of the Central Bank of Egypt’s keenness to keep pace with rapid technological developments, and in continuation of the great boom witnessed in the field of digital banking services in Egypt, from which it has benefited.” Basically, citizens in various parts of the Republic can now conduct their financial transactions easily and at a reasonable cost at any time and from anywhere.”
For his part, Rami Abu El-Naga – Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt, explained that “the new service confirms the Central Bank of Egypt’s commitment to strengthening the infrastructure for digital financial services, and providing advanced and secure electronic payment services to customers, as this service provides tremendous opportunities to provide innovative financial solutions that are compatible with the requirements of… customers and keep pace with the best international standards.”
The national payment card coding platform will allow adding a digital copy of the electronic payment card to mobile phone applications and using it in purchases, whether through electronic points of sale (POS) or through electronic websites and applications over the Internet (E-commerce), where payment transactions can be authenticated using Biometric characteristics (for example: face or fingerprint, etc.) without the need to enter the card’s PIN. The service will also allow improving customers’ experience in completing electronic transactions in a contactless manner, quickly and safely, without the need for electronic payment card data.
It is worth noting that the launch of the card coding service will contribute to increasing payment transactions through electronic points of sale and electronic commerce via the Internet, which has witnessed remarkable development during the last period, as the values of electronic point of sale transactions are expected to reach about 640 billion pounds by the end of 2024, with a growth rate of 280%. Compared to the year 2021, during which transactions worth 169 billion pounds were carried out, it is also expected that the values of e-commerce transactions will reach more than 180 billion pounds by the end of 2024 compared to the values of Transactions estimated at 29 billion by the end of 2021, with a growth rate of more than 500%.
