The Central Bank of Egypt has approved the regulations governing its Digital Financial Identity platform, the system through which banks will identify customers and verify them electronically so that accounts can be opened without a branch visit.
The platform handles identification of bank customers and electronic know your customer checks, and the regulations, approved by the central bank’s board of directors, set out the framework that will run it. They establish the platform’s governance structure, the roles and responsibilities of the parties taking part, and the technical and operational requirements, along with controls covering data protection and cybersecurity. The central bank said the framework is intended to deliver the services to international standards of security and efficiency.
Governor Hassan Abdalla said the platform will let customers open bank accounts and obtain banking products and services through digital channels without visiting a branch. Beyond account opening, it provides for the electronic acceptance of a bank’s terms and conditions, recognises electronic authentication as an alternative to a handwritten signature, and lets customers update their personal data remotely. Abdalla described the arrangement as a way to shorten the time and effort involved in reaching financial services and to widen access to them.
Banking is not the only sector where Egypt is moving identity checks off the counter. The National Telecommunications Regulatory Authority is integrating biometric identity verification into mobile operator applications to prevent unauthorised SIM registrations, a programme that prompted an Egyptian MP to seek safeguards around facial verification in SIM registration. The country also began piloting a digital visa on arrival this month.
The central bank placed the new regulations inside its financial inclusion strategy and a wider effort to move Egypt away from cash. Remote customer identification and electronic authentication make it easier for people and businesses with little access to branches to enter the formal banking system, it said, and the framework should strengthen the capacity of Egyptian banks to build more advanced digital products. No date has been set for the platform to open to customers.
Sources: Daily News Egypt, Ahram Online
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
