By Tom Phillips

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has issued regulations governing payment card tokenization on mobile apps that enable banks and payment service providers to allow customers to make contactless payments with digital cards stored in mobile wallets including Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.

The regulations set out the responsibilities and obligations of banks, card issuers, card networks and token service providers with regard to the provision and management of tokenized card payments from mobile devices, confidentiality, infrastructure, security and security assessment.

They also lay out the procedures banks and payment service providers will need to undertake in order to obtain a licence from the CBE to roll out the service.

“The issuance of the rules governing card coding [tokenization] services on electronic device applications will allow the activation of the services of many international companies, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and others, as well as financial technology companies,” according to a Daily News Egypt report.

“The CBE said that this in turn will lead to the creation of huge opportunities to provide innovative financial solutions that are compatible with customer requirements.

“The statement indicated that in addition to the many advantages offered by the service to customers, the new system will also help reduce the time and costs incurred by banks operating in the Arab Republic of Egypt in providing the service, as well as enable exporting banks to digitize payment cards of all kinds.”

The CBE introduced measures to promote cashless and contactless payments in March 2020.