Government banks have begun complying with the Central Bank of Egypt’s directive to set up a unified account to collect change from paper cheques and redirect the funds to national charity and development projects, Al Ahram reports.The CBE had announced late last week that it would begin implementing the strategy, which President Abdel Fattah El Sisi had initially suggested back in early 2016. Under the new policy, change less than EGP 1 will be collected from cheques or money transfers worth up to EGP 1 mn, while anything less than EGP 10 will be collected from transfers and cheques worth more than EGP 1 mn. These donations will not occur automatically, and must be approved in writing by the client, Banque Misr Chairman Mohamed El Etreby says. The funds will be redirected to the Tahya Misr Fund at the end of each month. The move has been met with praise from figures in the banking sector who believe it will help gather significant funds to finance development projects, according to the newspaper.

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