In an interview during Cairo ICT 2025, the Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority’s chair, Mohamed Farid, set out a digital roadmap for the authority and Egypt’s non-banking financial sector, centred on mandatory digitisation, data-driven supervision, and new technology partnerships. He highlighted a shift in supervisory approach from a traditionally restrictive posture to an enabling model that uses technology to support market growth while maintaining consumer protection. Key initiatives include a forthcoming collaboration with eFinance to launch a comprehensive payments platform covering all services the authority provides to supervised firms, with each firm assigned an electronic profile to pay service fees digitally, marking the end of paper-based payments at the authority. A separate planned cooperation with eTax, an eFinance subsidiary, would allow factoring companies to instantly query and verify invoices to help organise the market and prevent fraud, alongside a broader focus on anti-fraud efforts in health and insurance. Farid also pointed to cross-cutting use of technology across 14 supervised activities governed by around 14 laws, progress on electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) using phone number and national ID (with 17 companies adopting the technology and six outsourcing providers registered), and reliance on a stronger legal and data infrastructure, including electronic contracts referenced in Law No. 5 of 2022 and recognised by economic courts. The interview also linked digitisation to new market offerings, including online sale of insurance policies, a fractional ownership platform, and regulation of investment funds in metals. Farid reported that 25 of 79 non-banking financial firms provide services fully digitally, while 54 meet digital requirements, with digital activity split across insurance (6%), finance (29%) and capital markets (65%), and noted that the fractional ownership framework was followed by around 25 applications to establish real estate investment funds compared with two previously.
Egypt Financial Regulatory Authority signals end of paper payments and plans unified e-payment platform with eFinance and eTax
At Cairo ICT 2025, Mohamed Farid, chair of Egypt's Financial Regulatory Authority, outlined a digital roadmap for the non-banking financial sector, emphasizing mandatory digitisation, data-driven supervision, and technology partnerships. Initiatives include collaborating with eFinance on a payments platform, partnering with eTax for invoice verification, adopting electronic know-your-customer (e-KYC) processes, and introducing online insurance sales and fractional ownership platforms.