The Central Bank of Egypt told banks not to grant, renew or use credit facilities for consumer-finance transactions involving gold and other precious metals. The instruction, dated 12 October, follows a Financial Regulatory Authority prohibition issued on 16 September. It extends that restriction to the bank funding available to consumer-finance companies.
The central bank’s public circular index identifies the instruction as concerning the denial of credit facilities for transactions covered by the regulator’s September circular. Egyptian reports said the underlying products include gold bullion and jewellery, as well as comparable items made from silver and platinum. The regulator’s earlier position was that those products are investment assets rather than consumer goods eligible for financing under Egypt’s consumer-finance law.
BANK FUNDING RESTRICTIONS
The instruction applies when banks grant, renew or permit the use of facilities by consumer-finance companies for the prohibited transactions. Al Masdar and Shorouk reported that lenders must continue applying the supervisory checks set out in a September 2025 circular, including obtaining confirmation from the Financial Regulatory Authority before extending or renewing facilities. Shorouk also reported that banks should reclassify existing debt found to have funded the prohibited activity.
The measure links supervision of bank credit with the non-bank regulator’s rules for consumer lenders. It narrows the channels through which instalment financing for precious metals can be funded, while leaving other permitted consumer-finance activity outside the specific ban. The central bank’s instruction therefore affects lenders’ use-of-proceeds controls as well as consumer-finance companies’ product policies.
A FAST-GROWING CREDIT MARKET
Shorouk, citing the Financial Regulatory Authority’s latest data, reported that Egyptian consumer finance reached EGP66.7 billion in the first half of 2026, up 75.2% from EGP38.1 billion a year earlier. It said the number of beneficiaries increased to about 7.9 million from 4.8 million. The regulator has associated precious-metals instalment purchases with the risk that customers immediately resell the assets for cash.
Banks will need to identify whether facilities to consumer-finance companies support any of the prohibited transactions and apply the central bank’s supervisory requirements accordingly. Consumer lenders may also have to adjust product funding and monitoring where precious metals were offered on instalment plans. The next point to watch is whether the central bank publishes the signed circular body or further implementation guidance clarifying how lenders should treat existing exposures.