National Bank of Egypt (NBE) is always keen on maintaining its leading edge in the Egyptian banking market through keeping pace with the changes and developments in the global banking industry. This is evidenced by the policies and strategies adopted by NBE which aim at developing and upgrading its infrastructure, IT systems and service delivery channels.

Along the same line, NBE launched the first phase of its electronic service branches. This type of branches offers a new and distinguished experience to customers by delivering banking services using a state-of-the-art model for providing fully electronic banking services via alternative channels without human intervention. Highly qualified and trained customer service representatives will initially be available until customers become used to dealing with such branches independently. This serves to promote the concept of electronic banking services.

The first phase of the project comprises 4 branches, in which geographical distribution is taken into account in order to serve a larger segment of target customers, namely, City Stars Mall, Nasr City; Point 90, Fifth Settlement; Mall of Arabia, 6th of October City; and City Center, Alexandria.

Hisham Okasha, NBE's Chairman, confirmed that launching the electronic service branches for the first time in Egypt reaffirmed NBE's leadership in the Egyptian banking market. The new branches will offer banking services to customers with the highest efficiency and quality as part of NBE's comprehensive branch network. They will also have longer business hours to make it easier for customers to obtain banking services. This trend also proves that NBE seeks to provide advanced services which cater for the needs of all customer segments and develop customers' banking culture by encouraging them to avail of alternative cutting-edge channels to obtain their banking services without human intervention. Accordingly, this shores up NBE's efforts to put financial inclusion into action.

Yehia Abu El Fotouh, NBE's Deputy Chairman, said that the first phase of the project encompassed a wide range of electronic services that are provided to customers for the first time in the banking market. Among these services is the E-form service which enables customers to apply for certain banking services: subscribing to Al Ahly Net, Phone Cash and NBE Pay; issuing certificates; filling in customer information update forms; obtaining a certified statement of account; and issuing prepaid cards. The new branches also offer services to non-NBE customers such as prepaid cards and Phone Cash. The phase also introduces the interactive teller machines (ITMs), which are a new component launched officially for the first time through this type of branches. ITMs allow customers to withdraw and deposit cash amounts that exceed the daily limits of the ordinary ATMs. Additionally, bank cheques drawn on NBE can be deposited.

The branch also offers the Video Call service which enables customers to communicate audio-visually with customer service representatives to facilitate engagement with the Bank's products and services. Furthermore, it provides the information needed by customers to raise their banking awareness. New customers can open all types of accounts through the first phase, NBE's Deputy Chairman said.