Egypt's financial sector

[italkcash]

Since the unrest is most likely going to take down Egypt we will be looking at the financial status of Egypt and its capabilities.

Egypt has an interbank network called 123, which is linked to MasterCard, Diners Club and American Express International networks. Moreover, it is linked to regional networks in the Persian Gulf states, NAPS in State of Qatar, Benefit in Kingdom of Bahrain and CSC in Lebanon. Although right now (January 28th) the network is most likely down since the government shut down all internet traffic, but this has not been confirmed (for some reason we doubt many people in Egypt right now want to check out if their interbank network is still functional).

The interbank network is hooked up between the banks in Egypt. The banks are as following:

1. Arab African International Bank
2. Arab Banking Corporation - Egypt
3. Bank of Alexandria
4. Alexandria Commercial & Maritime Bank
5. ARAB Bank
6. Barclays - Egypt
7. Banque du Caire
8. Blom Bank (Misr Romanian Bank)
9. Banque Misr
10. BNP Paribas Le Caire
11. Calyon Bank Egypt
12. Cairo Far East Bank
13. Commercial International Bank
14. National Bank Of Abu Dhabi
15. Delta International Bank
16. Egyptian American Bank
17. Egyptian ARAB Land Bank
18. Piraeus Bank (Egyptian Commercial Bank)
19. Export Development Bank of Egypt
20. Egyptian Gulf Bank
21. Egyptian Saudi Finance Bank
22. Faisal Islamic Bank of Egypt
23. Housing & Development Bank
24. HSBC
25. Misr International Bank
26. Misr Iran Development Bank
27. National Bank for Development
28. National Bank of Oman
29. National Societe Generale Bank
30. Societe Arab Internationale de Banque
31. United Bank Of Egypt
32. Al Watany Bank of Egypt
33. Egypt post
34. National Bank of Egypt

The unit for Egypt currency is the pound (EGP; symbol E£) = 100 piastres. Notes are in denominations of E£100, 50, 20, 10, 5, 1, 50 piastres and 25 piastres. Coins are in denominations of 20, 10 and 5 piastres.

Egypt will probably be hit hard financially after their political crisis, but then again, the overall GDP is very low in Egypt. Follow us on twitter for more financial news on Egypt.

[italkcash]

Word is that Egyptian civilians are queuing up to ATM's to pick up any cash they can. That in turn means the interbank network is still operational, and that in turn means that the IT center serving the interbank link between the banks in Egypt is still operational.

Question is just if international cards are working in Egypt or if those capabilities are cut of. Since interbank networks are not really relying on DNS servers, which is supposedly what has been shut down in Egypt, we must assume cards from abroad still work.

True chaos will only arise when the financial industry is failing in a country. If the interbank network is operational, tourist can still have a nice holiday in the sea side resorts. Once this breaks down, if it does, then its completely game over, and all financial transactions will come to a standstill completely in Egypt.