CAUTION enveloped Egypt's banks and exchange companies amid the ongoing protests across the country which took an ugly turn on Monday after clashes between the army and pro-Morsi protesters left at least 51 dead, reports Nesma Nowar. While many banks reduced their working hours and closed at 1pm, most said they would continue operating regularly, offering services to their customers, Automated teller machines (ATMs) run by various banks were operating normally, and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) issued instructions to all banks to ensure that machines contained cash and were replenished regularly. The regulations are aimed at meeting the public's need for cash during the protests. Meanwhile, the CBE allowed banks and exchange companies to follow precautionary measures, including closing branches, should the situation deteriorate. Ezzat Abu Zeid, executive director of Brent, a foreign exchange company, said that his company had to shut down on certain days following the ongoing unrest. “We closed our doors following the speech of former president Mohamed Morsi last week, fearing a furious backlash,” Abu Zeid told Al-Ahram Weekly. Abu Zeid stated that exchange companies had also minimised their working hours, closing at 4pm instead of 9pm. He added the market was currently stagnant due to the ongoing political instability. “Banks and exchange companies are always the biggest victims of any social unrest,” he said. On the days following the 25 January Revolution in 2011, lines were packed in front of ATMs and in banks as people tried to withdraw money as a result of fears that the situation would escalate and they could find themselves without money for their immediate needs. However, the situation this time round has been different, and no queues formed in front of teller machines while the demand on banking transactions was weak. “People have got used to the atmosphere of demonstrations,” Dina Sadek, a private sector employee, told the Weekly. “They no longer panic and scramble to withdraw large amounts of money as was the case during the 25 January Revolution.” Many customers asked by the Weekly had not faced any problems with cash withdrawals from ATMs. However, Karim Mustafa, 25, stated that his bank had imposed a cap on the amount of cash he could withdraw by credit card. “I couldn't take out more than LE3,000, though I needed more,” Mustafa said. Mustafa faced a temporary cash withdrawal limit imposed by HSBC, a major private bank in Egypt. Ahead of the 30 June Revolution, the bank announced that it was imposing a temporary cap on cash withdrawals of LE3,000 for debit, credit and ATM cardholders, but said that it had restored normal withdrawal limits for customers . The move was part of the bank's emergency measures in the face of the nationwide protests staged on 30 June. HSBC was not alone in imposing temporary limits or taking other measures. Another leading private bank told its customers that it had opted to follow precautionary measures to safeguard its assets located in areas at potential high risk, such as Tahrir Square and the area surrounding the Al-Ittihadiya palace. The measures included the closure of branches located in such areas in Cairo and Alexandria, as well as voiding ATMs in the same places of cash. At other banks, business continued as usual, with one source at Crédit Agricole saying that all its ATMs were fully operational with no caps imposed on withdrawals. The source said that customers had faced no problems concerning the bank's ATMs and that some customers had readied themselves for the 30 June protests by withdrawing money in advance. These had been “within the normal limits”, he said.
