Central Bank of Egypt

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE; Arabic: البنك المركزي المصري) is the central bank and monetary authority of the Arab Republic of Egypt.^[4]

Central Bank of Egypt
البنك المركزي المصري

Central Bank building in Cairo
Headquarters	Cairo
Coordinates	30°03′16.9″N 31°14′48.0″E 30.0581°N 31.2343°E / 30.0581; 31.2343
Established	25 June 1898 (1898-06-25)[1]
Ownership	100% state ownership[2]
Governor	Hassan Abdullah
Central bank of	Egypt
Currency	Egyptian pound EGP (ISO 4217)
Reserves	US$50.07 billion[2]
Bank rate	12.25[3]
Interest on reserves	11.25%[3]
Preceded by	National Bank of Egypt (until 1960)
Website	www.cbe.org.eg

Currency

Main article: Egyptian pound

Since the trading of gold and silver coins in Egypt and until 1834, there was no one unit of currency to unify the country. In 1834, a decree was realised stating the forging of an Egyptian currency based on the two metals (gold and silver). In accordance with said decree, the minting of a currency in the shape of gold and silver Riyals began. In 1836, the Egyptian pound was first introduced and it became open for public use.^[5]

The bank floated the Egyptian pound during the morning of the 13th of November 2016.^[6][7] Financial reserves of the Egyptian pound stood at 2.24 trillion in December 2024.^[8]

Functions

Its functions include^{[citation needed]}

• Regulates banks and the banking system of Egypt;
• Formulates and implements Egypt's banking policy, monetary policy and credit policy;
• Issues banknotes;
• Manages gold and the foreign exchange reserves of the Arab Republic of Egypt
• Regulates and manages Egypt's presence in the foreign exchange market;
• Supervises the national payments system;
  • As part of this, launched a instant payment system called InstaPay in March 2022;
• Manages Egypt's public and private external debt.

List of governors

Following is a list of the Governors of the Central Bank of Egypt:^[9]

Name	Took office	Left office
Sir Elwin Palmer	August 1898	January 1906
Sir Frederick Rowlatt	June 1906	February 1921
Sir Bertram Hornsby	March 1921	February 1931
Sir Edward Cook	March 1931	October 1940
Sir Norman Nixon	October 1940	April 1946
Sir Frederick Leith-Ross	May 1946	April 1951
Ahmed Zaki Saad	May 1951	April 1952
Mohamed Fekry	May 1952	March 1955
Ahmed Zaki Saad	March 1956	July 1957
Abd El-Gelil El Emary	November 1957	March 1960
Abd El-Hakim El Refaie	March 1960	March 1964
Ahmed Zendo	March 1964	February 1967
Ahmed Nazmy	February 1967	January 1971
Ahmed Zendo	February 1971	March 1976
Mohamed Abd El Fatah Ibrahim	March 1976	January 1982
Mohamed Shalaby	February 1982	March 1985
Ali Negm	March 1985	November 1986
Mahmoud Hamed	November 1986	October 1993
Ismail Hassan Mohamed	October 1993	October 2001
Mohamed Abul Eyoun	October 2001	November 2003
Farouk El-Okdah	December 2003	February 2013
Hisham Ramez	February 2013	November 2015
Tarek Hassan Amer	November 2015	August 2022
Hassan Abdalla	August 2022	Present

See also

• Banks portal

• List of central banks of Africa
• Economy of Egypt
• List of central banks