Hisham Ramez, Governor of Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), asserted on Thursday that the CBE safeguards the rights of the employees working in the National Bank of Oman following the latter's official request to exit the Egyptian Market. Dr. Ramez stated that the National Bank of Oman (NBO) met yesterday with the central bank discussing the Omani bank's plans to exit the Egyptian market. The meeting has been attended by the CBE's governor along with his deputy Mr. Gamal Negm as well as the NBO's regional Director Abdel Aziz Al-Mehrezi. "No Bank shall cease its transactions, except upon prior approval from the Board of Directors of the Central Bank as pursuant to Article 42 of Law No. 88/2003 of the Central Bank, the Banking Sector and Money,." Amwal Al Ghad quoted Dr. Ramez as saying on Thursday Such an approval to ceasing the transactions shall be issued after verification that the bank has submitted adequate guarantees, or has finally cleared all obligations toward depositors, other debtors and the staff rights, according to the conditions and procedures to be issued by a decision of the Central Bank, the CBE governor noted. It is worth noting that the National Bank of Oman owns its banking license to provide banking services to his clients in Egypt through its sole headquarters in Cairo amid closing its 4 other branches in the country over the last several years. The NBO has significantly reduced the size of its banking businesses over the last two years. By the mid of the current week, the NBO employees – whose number does not exceed 20 - had organized a sit-in following the administrative decree as regard to deduct the end of service benefits. Amwal Al Ghad had been informed last Tuesday by senior sources that the National Bank of Oman is planning to end its banking activities in the Egyptian market by the end of June 2014. The bank, which has one branch in Abu Dhabi in UAE, has established 67 branches since its establishment in 1973 in Oman.
