CAIRO: After initiating a private check collection service for the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) last year, Barclays Bank Egypt launched a similar corporate service for bulk cash collection in early 2007. This service by the British bank, Bulk Cash Solutions, is essentially an expansion of an already available cash courier service. And it handles clients' transfers with the CBE, which are slowed by the state's strict collecting regulations, specifically how cash must be sorted and counted before deposit. Mohamed Kamel Baiyoumi, head of product development at Barclays Bank Egypt, described the private cash collection service as "facilitating the cycle of cash in the markets and increasing the speed of that cash cycle, with faster, more efficient transfers. "There is a personal and corporate trend to keep cash, said Akram Tinawi, corporate banking director at Barclays Bank Egypt. The rigid state regulations, he said, indirectly encourage clients to keep money in private safes without a return, slowing the flow of money in a cash society like Egypt. Barclay's working relationship with state regulators and the CBE signals a readiness within the state to improve essential banking services, according to Bauomy, and partly privatize cash collection for the state. This is the first time that the government picked a foreign bank to manage state money, Tinawi said.
