CBE Approves Smartphone Contactless Payments

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) agreed to grant licenses to provide the service of accepting contactless payments on smartphones, as part of the implementation of the national payments council’s strategy, and in implementation of the Egyptian government’s strategy to shift towards a society less dependent on banknotes and support the strategy of financial inclusion.

CBE stated, in a statement on Sunday, that the new service represents a breakthrough in facilitating electronic financial transactions, as accepting contactless payments on mobile phones and smart devices are one of the latest and least expensive methods of acceptance, and it is a new technological technology that allows merchants to accept card payments directly on their phones or their devices without the need for any additional peripheral devices.

It explained that the new technology transforms smart devices into an electronic acceptance point through which payments are accepted using contactless cards in their various forms directly to shops accounts quickly and securely as soon as one makes it.

It pointed out that one of the most important advantages of applying for contactless payments on smart devices is to reduce the cost of buying or renting traditional electronic vending machines, in addition to the lack of maintenance costs that were done for vending machines, the expansion of the drawers of the category of small merchants, and the promotion of acceptance of payments for daily ordering services.