General Division: Law Does Not License Companies to Keep Hold of Customers' Gold Savings

Lotfi Mounib, deputy head of the General Division for Gold and Jewelry at the General Federation of Chambers of Commerce, said that buying and selling foreign currencies is only licensed to practice for exchange companies from the Central Bank without the rest of the transactions authorized for banks such as keeping money and making investment deposits for customers and transfers.

Mounib added, therefore, any transactions with exchange companies outside the limits of the licenses issued to them, such as investing or transferring funds inside or outside the country, is a risk, and the use of money and smuggling is punishable by law.

He pointed out that the new advertisements for buying and selling raw gold online for individuals through electronic applications on mobile phones are a confusion between what is permitted and what is not, and is similar to the attempts of some exchange companies to conduct unauthorized transactions other than for banks only.

Mounib stressed that the gold hallmarked with the seal of the Egyptian Stamp and Scales Authority, which is sold and delivered to the buyer at the moment of payment, is a normal activity that any company is allowed to advertise and practice as long as it pays taxes to the state, but those companies are not allowed to save customers’ properties of gold and money they have like banks.

This is because it did not obtain licenses from the state's agencies by which the property is guaranteed to its owners.

Mounib Continued to say that customers must abide by accuracy and caution before risking their money in credit transactions outside the scope of banks without verifying the existence and limits of licenses with which these transactions are carried out in order to ensure their safety and guarantee funds.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar