And joining me now is Dr. Amr Saleh, Associate Professor of Economics and Senior Economic Advisor with extensive international experience in economic policy, sustainable development, and public administration. Doctor, welcome to Fintech TV.
Thank you. The pleasure is mine. I'm really very glad to see you again.
Let's start with the context. Globally, ISO 20022 is now effectively mandatory on SWIFT. Egypt is aligning with the standard, and the rest of the world has already moved to it. So is Egypt catching up, or is there a real opportunity here to leapfrog and build something more modern than the legacy systems elsewhere?
Let's agree that we are talking about the world's most advanced and unified global standard for financial messaging. The first version was published by the International Organization for Standards. It replaced the legacy MT format — the old message type format that started in the 1970s — with an XML-based rich message format that was carrying around 100 characters. Now we're talking about a capacity of 9,000 connected messages, which means this is far more efficient. It enables data-rich cross-border payment instructions, and it is far superior in terms of AML processing — it would dramatically improve what we call straight-through processing rates and reduce manual intervention.
Egypt has invested a great deal in cybersecurity and financial services, and these are presidential and government priorities. To answer your question directly — yes. Egypt has successfully adopted ISO 20022 in accordance with the instructions of the Central Bank of Egypt, implementing it across all banks operating in Egypt for SWIFT interbank financial transfers. The adoption also upgrades Egypt's real-time gross settlement system — the backbone of high-value bank payments — to full ISO 20022 compliance. This places Egypt's system among the ranks of the world's most advanced payment settlement infrastructures, as officially announced by the Central Bank.
So in short, yes — Egypt has achieved full ISO 20022 RTGS compliance, approximately seven months after the SWIFT global coexistence period ended in November 2025. Egypt was not among the earliest adopters globally, but its implementation was timely, well-structured, and in my opinion strategically aligned with the Central Bank's digital transformation agenda. The Banking Reform and Development Fund, launched in Egypt in 2025, was established to modernize banking infrastructure, strengthen cybersecurity, support innovation, and promote financial inclusion. Having a government institution backing banking reform and development like this fund is very critical — it ensures a regulatory-driven implementation mandated by the Central Bank of Egypt across all banks simultaneously, to ensure full ecosystem coverage.
So this is a very positive sign — a sign that fintech infrastructure in Egypt is moving forward. Now let's take a step back and look at the bigger picture. How large is the fintech market expected to become, in your opinion, and which subsectors do you think will attract the largest share of investment?
That's a very broad question, and globally this market is moving very fast. I think that by 2030, the fintech market will exceed one trillion dollars, with upside projections potentially reaching 1.5 trillion or more. Projected revenues are growing from 245 billion to 1.5 trillion by 2030. The fintech sector's share of total financial services revenue could increase from around 2% to 7%.
What level of investment in digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and AI platforms do you think is required for Egypt to build a globally competitive fintech ecosystem?
Growth in this sector is expected to reach around 21% year on year, which from an economic standpoint is a huge market. In terms of subsectors, payments remain the dominant leader, AI-driven finance is the fastest-growing segment, and blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins, digital banking, and neobanking are all areas Egypt is investing in heavily. As a professor of economics and international expert, I believe that with Egypt's existing investments, capabilities, and human resources — particularly in wealthtech and insurtech — Egypt has what it takes to lead even within the Arab world. The four critical pillars are digital infrastructure, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and AI platforms. These are the areas Egypt has invested in, and I believe they will deliver very strong returns for the country in the future.
So the story here is whether Egypt is laying the financial plumbing for a more connected, digital, and globally integrated economy — and whether the harder pieces, confidence and capital, will follow the pipes. It's been a pleasure having you. Thank you very much for joining us.
Thank you so much.
