Hommam Al Nassim 
“Misr Digital Innovation”, the digital arm of Bank of Egypt, has successfully invested 2.5 billion pounds in launching Egypt’s first digital bank, known as “Oan Bank”. It is expected to commence operations before the end of this year.
The company’s CEO, Sherif El Beheiry, explained that the project is witnessing significant investments focused mainly on imported technology, as the company has so far spent 95% of the total cost on this aspect.
During the press conference held at “One Bank’s” headquarters in Maadi, Bahri pointed out that the bank aims to attract 700,000 customers in the first year, with the number expected to increase to more than one million customers during the first two years.
The Bank will then focus on micro, small and large enterprises four years after the start of the activity.
Beheiry confirmed that the bank allows the possibility of opening or closing bank accounts within minutes and obtaining loans worth less than EGP 100,000 in one day or less.
A discussion is currently underway between “One Bank” and the Central Bank on the adoption of the digital identity, which plays an important role in facilitating digital banking operations.
“One Bank” has a paid-up capital of up to EGP 4 billion, which is expected to increase to EGP 5.5 billion by mid-2025.
Planning for the establishment of the bank began five years ago and began actual implementation in 2021, and the Central Bank of Egypt granted preliminary approval to operate this digital bank.
The Egyptian authorities also plan to launch “the Digital Financial Identity Company” in the second half of the year, with the aim of enabling the opening of bank accounts electronically and via mobile phones without the need to visit branches.
It is noteworthy that the first digital bank in the world was in 2015, the British (Monzo) Bank, which grew up as the first smart bank without traditional branches and has more than 800,000 customers. In the Arab world, the first digital bank appeared in May 2014, namely Meem Bank in Saudi Arabia without any branches.
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