A collection of banks in Egyptian have suspended customers from using debit cards in foreign countries, including foreign currencies as well, as the country deals with a major liquidity crisis.
The Arab African International Bank (AAIB) is one of the banks enforcing this. According to a memo,
The decision aims to prevent abusive use of debit cards outside Egypt to benefit from the difference in the exchange rate between the official and the parallel markets, thus draining the foreign currency reserves at the Egyptian banking system.
Travelers can secure their needs of foreign currency through the bank branches before departing, as per the directives of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
A source told the Ahram Times
The Commercial International Bank (CIB) also sent a message to its customers explaining that starting on October 10th transactions in foreign currencies âwill be suspended when using Direct Debit Cards issued on accounts in pounds, and the use of the Direct Debit Card will be limited to transactions in pounds only, within Egypt,â Egypt Today reported…
