Banks to implement Basle recommendations by 2006

Egypt's banks are preparing to implement the recommendations set out under the second Basle Accord from now till 2006, Mahmoud Abul Oyoun, Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) governor said at a seminar on Basle standards yesterday.

He remarked that most banks were modernising themselves so that it would be easy for them to apply the new standards by 2006, adding that they now have cumulative experience in applying them, through application of the first Basle Accord, noting that the capital ceiling had risen from 8 to 10 per cent.

On the issue of money laundering, the governor said that Egypt had prepared the money laundering laws' executive list and that it had been sent to the Council of Europe's Select Committee in Paris, adding that Egypt was waiting to be removed from the list of money-laundering states.

Financial Services Academy chairman, Hala Said, organizer of the seminar, pointed out that even though the Basle recommendations weren't compulsory, Egypt would comply with them.