National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has stepped in to acquire Banque Misr’s branches in the UAE, the two Egyptian lenders said yesterday, weeks after the branches were threatened by the US Treasury with sanctions over links to Iran.
The US Treasury said on August 28 that it viewed the branches as a ‘critical node’ for the Iranian government’s access to US dollars and proposed revoking Banque Misr UAE’s correspondent banking access to US financial institutions.
Its proposed punishment was expected to come into effect in less than 30 days after a public consultation period. The Egyptian bank said it was reviewing the notice while the UAE central bank launched an urgent examination of the branches.
The UAE central bank has issued preliminary approval for NBE to acquire the branches, the two Egyptian lenders said in a joint statement yesterday.
“As part of its efforts to keep pace with the current development of foreign banking markets and the entailed requirements during the next phase, Banque Misr and the National Bank of Egypt announced a preliminary agreement on rearranging their banking presence in the United Arab Emirates,” they said in the statement.
They did not mention the sanctions and said that the potential deal comes within the framework of a common vision to integrate their external banking presence without disrupting services. Both NBE and Banque Misr are owned by the Egyptian government. NBE says on its website that it has a representative office in Dubai.
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