Bank Like An Egyptian

MasterCard partnered with Egyptian Banks Company (EBC), Etisalat, and the National Bank of Egypt (NBE) to launch Flous, the first mobile wallet solution in the Arab world.

Flous, which means “money,” is set to provide payment services to the 94 million mobile users in the region’s market.

The first phase of service will allow users to transfer money to other subscribers, or deposit and withdraw cash from EBC, or NBE bank branches. The service will be carried out through Etisalat’s mobile network. The next phase will allow bill payments, retail purchases, and global e-commerce.

According to MasterCard, 65% of Egypt’s 80 million population is underbanked, or do not have access to banks at all. Flous is meant to provide these people with banking services that they’d ordinarily lack.

Mohamed Kamel Bayoumi, Managing Director at EBC said, “Our objective, together with the Central Bank and the Government, is to bring financial services to the fingertips of each and every Egyptian. This collaborative initiative will allow us to achieve that.” Cheers to modern solutions for an ancient civilization.