In the fight against COVID-19
Crédit Agricole Egypt postpones above 120,000 facilities
Records a sharp increase of 45% in the number of digital transactions for companies
Cairo, Egypt, July 14th, 2020 – In the context of the economic crisis related to COVID-19, Crédit Agricole Egypt has been mobilized to protect its staff and support its customers and community in line with its Group’s mission and in implementation of the Central Bank of Egypt’s decisions. The Bank has announced the postponement of more than 120,000 corporate and individual facilities including loans and credit cards. In addition, the bank has proceeded with the waiver of the ATM withdrawal fees and transfer fees as part of the CBE measures to ensure the containment of the spread of the coronavirus.
Furthermore, to minimize their infection risks, Crédit Agricole Egypt has encouraged its customers to use its multiple digital channels; banki Mobile, banki Lite and banki Online for individuals and banki Business. As a result, the bank has recorded during the health crisis and in comparison with the same period in 2019 an outstanding increase of the number of digital transactions for companies reaching 45% and for individuals 35%. This increase reflects the effectiveness of CAE’s fully fledged platform of digital services banki by Crédit Agricole knowing that already 1 out of 3 customers are registered in the digital services.
Mr. Pierre Finas, Managing Director of CAE says: in the face of the crisis, CAE has reaffirmed its commitment towards its staff, customers and community. Since the start of the current health crisis, the bank’s management have been mobilized to ensure all the banking services remain available for our customers while safeguarding their safety as well as the safety our staff that we have to thank for their dedication and hard work during this critical time. The bank has taken all sanitary and disinfection measures to protect its employees and customers’’.
Finas adds: “we have aligned with CBE decisions and we deemed important to communicate since the first day of the coronavirus outbreak, with all our clients, to respond to their inquiries and provide the necessary information via the bank’s website and social media platforms. For the community, our contribution covered the whole spectrum of impacted population: patients’ treatment, medics protection and support to the daily workers in implementation to our strategy aiming to achieve sustainability”.
In this context, the bank has rolled out an innovative Ramadan campaign under the slogan “protect yourself and you will protect others’’ to motivate customers to protect themselves using the bank’s digital services and payment cards. For every financial transaction, the Bank presents a contribution to support daily workers through the Egyptian Food Bank as well as in favor of medics’ protection through Ahl Misr.
The bank has earlier announced a number of social initiatives to help overcome the repercussions of coronavirus outbreak. These initiatives included a cooperation protocol signed between CA Egypt Foundation for Development and Ahl Masr Foundation, under which the bank provided funds for an intensive care unit (ICU), as well as for the purchase of artificial ventilators, syringe pumps, and X-ray machine for a number of public hospitals, which are aimed to help the Ministry of Health in the treatment of coronavirus patients. CA Egypt Foundation has also participated in ‘Kheir w Baraka’ initiative to support daily-wage workers.
Crédit Agricole Egypt had earlier announced the launch of a new initiative, titled “Shokran”, for supporting doctors and all workers in the health sector. Under the initiative, the bank exempted medics from all administrative fees on loans, credit cards and accounts.
Crédit Agricole Egypt was also among the first banks to take precautionary measures to protect employees and clients, which included periodic sterilization of all ATMs, using sanitizers and distributing masks and gloves among employees in all of the bank branches. The bank also intensified its sterilization activities and placed signs for social distancing inside branches and at ATMs.
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