Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
Egypt’s Financial Regulatory Authority plans to continue suspending new licences for consumer-finance and microfinance activities for another year, extending the pause into a third year as it prepares new rules for companies and customers.
Rehab Taha, an assistant to the authority’s chairman, said the regulator intends to issue a standard contract for consumer-finance services next month. Speaking at a training workshop for journalists in Cairo, she said the contract is designed to regulate the relationship between customers and companies and could resolve more than 80 percent of disputes in the sector.
The licensing pause comes as consumer finance has expanded sharply. Companies provided 66.7 billion Egyptian pounds in financing during the first half of 2026, a 75.2 percent increase compared with the same period a year earlier. About 7.9 million customers used the services during those six months, up 65 percent year on year, according to the latest data from the authority.
The growth continued a rapid rise recorded in 2025. Consumer-finance providers extended 96.3 billion pounds in funding that year, compared with 61.3 billion pounds in 2024, an annual increase of 57 percent. More than 10.8 million customers benefited from consumer financing in 2025, and the authority had issued 48 licences to companies operating in the sector.
Taha also said the authority plans to extend an anti-fraud system to all non-bank financial activities and the insurance sector. She did not specify when the system would be introduced or explain how it would operate.
The proposed contract and fraud controls are part of a wider regulatory effort to organize a market serving an increasing number of customers. The authority’s measures also address how lenders assess applicants before approving financing. In September, it required companies involved in consumer finance and financing for medium, small and micro enterprises to connect in real time with iScore, Egypt’s credit-information company. The connection is intended to help providers check customers’ credit records and assess their creditworthiness before issuing loans.
The authority has also published a guide setting out requirements for consumer-finance companies. It covers company establishment and licensing, governance, internal controls and financial soundness, as well as rules for conducting business, drawing up contracts and registering branches.
Microfinance is also included in the planned extension of the licensing suspension. At the end of 2025, the sector comprised 23 companies and 494 associations, according to the authority’s figures. Financing provided to medium, small and micro enterprises reached 106.9 billion pounds in 2025, compared with 95.8 billion pounds in 2024.
The figures point to growth across both consumer lending and financing for businesses. The authority’s current approach combines a pause on new licences with rules intended to govern existing providers’ operations, customer agreements and credit checks. Taha did not provide further details on the proposed extension or identify when the regulator would formally announce it.
For consumer-finance customers, the planned standard contract is intended to make the terms of financing more consistent and help address disputes. The authority has not yet released the contract, so its specific terms and the process for resolving complaints remain to be set out.
The real-time credit-information requirement gives lenders a formal channel to review customer creditworthiness before approving financing. Alongside the planned anti-fraud system and the regulatory guide, it forms part of the authority’s broader effort to strengthen oversight of Egypt’s non-bank financial activities while the number of borrowers and the value of financing continue to rise.
