Central Bank of Egypt governor opens new check clearing house

The new electronic Cairo Clearing House at the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) was inaugurated yesterday.

Its services will be available to banks nationwide and its computerized system will be capable of clearing up to 100,000 cheques a day.

After the opening ceremony CBE Governor Mahmoud Abul-Oyoun said that the new clearinghouse would shorten the time for drawing one cheque to one day for central Cairo banks and just a few days in other parts of the country. The period was previously 20-25 days.

"This is will help stimulate the Egyptian economy in general by enhancing the circulation and flow of money between debtors and creditors. It is also a significant step towards developing and modernizing the CBE," Abul Oyoun said.

Director of the newly inaugurated Clearing House Hussein Abu Zeid said that the future prospects for developing the clearing system included setting up other similar ones in other parts of the country.

"We have started with the Cairo and the Alexandria Clearing Houses. All new ones will be computerized," he said.