CAIRO , April 9 (UPI) -- Banks in Egypt have begun refusing to accept financial transfers or recognize invoices from client banks of Egyptian exporters in Sudan, Syria and Libya.
The banks are following orders from the Central Bank of Egypt not to accept transactions from certain Arab and African countries. The central bank has indicated the countries, which include Qatar, do not adhere to international laws regarding money laundering. They are also suspected of transferring funds to human rights organizations and non-governmental organizations suspected of misusing funds.
Egypt’s Chemical and Fertilizers Export Council, a trade group, was the first to criticize the orders by the Central Bank.
“Egyptian exporters are unable to collect their money,” said council chairman Walid Helal. “There must be a solution since our chemical exports to Libya were 1.3 billion Egyptian pounds ($172,055,524) in 2013 and .7 billion ($100,365,722) to Sudan. Egyptian exporters have documents proving those transfers are for products sold in those countries."
[Al-Masry Al-Youm]
