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 Mohamed El-Etreby, Chairman of the Federation of Egyptian Banks (FEB) and CEO of the National Bank of Egypt (NBE), announced that the severe congestion observed across automated teller machines (ATMs) over the past 48 hours is driven by a simultaneous convergence of monthly salary disbursements, state pension payouts, and exceptional consumer cash requirements ahead of the Eid Al-Adha holiday cycle.

During a live phone interview with the Studio Extra program broadcast on Extra News, El-Etreby revealed that aggregate cash drawdowns from NBE’s automated terminal network alone surged to a historic EGP 9 billion within just two days. This volume represents an exponential spike compared to standard operational baseline windows, which typically fluctuate between EGP 2 billion and EGP 4 billion daily.

Peak Multi-Bank Congestion and Preemptive Deployment

The FEB chief explained that the localized bottlenecking at cash points peaked during morning and afternoon intervals. He attributed this traffic pattern to consumer panic buying and a shared urgency among citizens to secure paper currency at identical times.

To satisfy the surging retail demand, El-Etreby confirmed that the banking sector implemented preemptive logistics protocols. Specifically, the state-owned banking duopoly consisting of the National Bank of Egypt and Banque Misr mobilized their joint infrastructure of approximately 13,000 ATM terminals distributed nationwide across all governorates.

Real-Time Cash Replenishment Operations

El-Etreby verified that commercial banks have established tight synchronization frameworks with specialized cash-in-transit (CIT) and ATM replenishment enterprises. These alliances ensure immediate vault restocking the moment a terminal logs a zero-cash status.

Furthermore, the entire national ATM footprint is linked to automated central bank dashboards, allowing dedicated internal oversight teams to monitor real-time liquidity drop-offs and execute immediate logistical interventions. This ongoing operational maintenance is engineered to ensure continuous, uninterrupted cash-out capabilities for retail consumers throughout the extended holiday cycle.