Egypt's Largest Bank Joins Ripple Network for Cross-Border Payments

Egypt is in the top five nations globally in terms of remittance flows from ex-pat communities.

By Daniel Palmer

May 19, 2021 at 9:58 a.m. UTC

Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 12:57 p.m. UTC

omar-elsharawy-_RlE7M_w8Ho-unsplash — Cairo, Egypt

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National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is to harness blockchain technology from Ripple for a remittance corridor with the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Egypt's largest bank will work with financial services firm LuLu International Exchange in the UAE to serve the large number of Egyptians working in the Middle Eastern nation, California-based Ripple said on Tuesday.
The remittance market for Egypt is huge, with the North African country receiving $24 billion in 2020 alone, Ripple said, citing third-party data.
"Given the important role remittances play in the Egyptian economy, the National Bank of Egypt is continuously aiming to develop and enhance the infrastructure which pertains to this line of business," said Hesham Elsafty, group head for Financial Institutions and International Financial Services at NBE.
In joining RippleNet – Ripple's distributed ledger-based payments network – the bank and LuLu seek to access "cheaper, quicker and more reliable" payments, according to the announcement.
The firms do not make clear if they will use the XRP cryptocurrency (developed in large part by Ripple) to move liquidity. XRP is an option for clients on RippleNet.

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