The number of electronic payment cards issued by Banque Misr by the end of June 2018 exceeded 6.32m cards, most of which have smart chips. Banque Misr became the second largest banks in terms of issued cards in Egypt, by reaching this figure. According to Banque Misr,the number of traders contracted with the bank reached 15,616 across the country with transactions, through the point of sale (POS) and the e-commerce systems, reaching over EGP 13.4bn per year. Banque Misr maintained its leading position for the 13th year in a row among the banks participating in the ministry of finance's automated payroll system which was established in 2005. The bank's shares of total transactions in the system amounted to 48% at 2.56m cards, with 895 governmental entities contracted with the bank. The value of salaries transferred annually through the bank to the private and public sectors amount to EGP 75bn. “Banque Misr imparts significant importance towards financial inclusion and is working to achieve this through several axes, in line with the Central Bank of Egypt's plan to enhance financial inclusion efforts,” the bank stated. It explained that it has introduced various salary automation solutions for public and private sector companies, by offering a variety of salary transfer products, salary cards, and salary accounts, noting that the number of companies contracted with the bank in this aspect reached about 872 companies for 774,000 issued cards and 55,100 accounts. Banque Misr is also the top bank in helping clients pay customs, in addition to providing the CPS service to its clients, which enables them to pay taxes and custom duties electronically through the BM Wallet. The bank enables electronic payment of taxes and custom through 347 branches, including 342 in Egypt, and five branches in the UAE. In addition, Banque Misr has entered into a number of partnerships with the aim of providing electronic payment to members of the community, including partnerships with Visa, Exxon Mobil, and Egypt Post. “Banque Misr has an advanced network of 2,292 ATMs providing deposit and withdrawals services, as well as currency exchange, payment of bills, donations, cash transfer service between the accounts of bank customers up to the amount of EGP 20,000,” stated the bank. Furthermore, these ATMs also provide cash transfer services, with or without the use of cards, and the service of withdrawal and deposit of mobile phone wallets, as well as enabling over 11 million mobile banking users to benefit from the ATM service, which increases the number of transactions on mobile wallets. “Banque Misr is expanding its branches nationwide. Recently, a number of branches have icreased, bringing the number of its branches to 620 in Egypt, in addition to its presence in the UAE, Lebanon, France, Germany, China and Russia,” it added. Additionally, the bank noted that it intends to be present during the coming period in Italy (Milan), South Korea (Seoul), Kenya (Nairobi), and more African countries. Banque Misr also pioneered in the field of Islamic banking, being the first public bank to set up Islamic Branches (Kenana) that has reached 38 branches in Egypt. The bank declared it has always been working on developing its technological structure by using the latest technology in the world, in order to provide more efficient services. Banque Misr pointed out that in this context, it recently used artificial intelligence technology to provide the Chat Bot service on its website to serve its customers. This interactive service is a step forward towards digitisation. Customers can always interactively interact with the assistant without waiting, which reflects the speed and flexibility of customer service in order to improve the bank's efficiency and smooth customer service.
