Overview
- The Central Bank of the UAE has given preliminary approval for the National Bank of Egypt to take over Banque Misr’s UAE branches in an agreement announced Tuesday, with the handover subject to final regulatory sign-off.
- Both Egyptian state-owned banks say the transfer will be carried out in an orderly way to ensure business continuity and protect customer rights across the UAE.
- The CBUAE has separately prohibited Bank Melli Iran’s UAE branches from conducting transactions to and from Iran, including trade finance and fund transfers, as part of urgent supervisory actions.
- The U.S. Treasury’s FinCEN proposed a Section 311 action that alleged about $1.8 billion in Banque Misr UAE-linked flows to Iranian shadow-banking between January 2024 and June 2026, a step that could cut dollar correspondent access and raise compliance costs for affected banks.
- Final terms of the NBE–Banque Misr transfer were not disclosed and authorities may still take further measures, so customers and correspondent banks face ongoing uncertainty over accounts, licence status and cross-border dollar clearing.