Egypt's NBE gains preliminary approval to acquire Banque Misr's UAE operations

​The United Arab Emirates central bank ​has issued preliminary approval ‌for ​National Bank of Egypt's request to acquire Banque Misr's branches in the Gulf country, the two ‌Egyptian banks said on Tuesday, weeks after the branches were placed under sanctions by the US Treasury over links to Iran.

The US Treasury said last ‌month that it viewed the branches as a "critical node" for the Iranian ‌government’s access to US dollars and proposed to revoke Banque Misr UAE’s correspondent banking access to US financial institutions. Its proposed punishment was expected to come into effect ⁠in less than ​30 days ⁠after a public consultation period.

The Egyptian bank said it was reviewing the notice while ⁠the UAE central bank launched an urgent examination of the branches. "As part of ​its efforts to keep pace with the current development of foreign ⁠banking markets and the entailed requirements during the next phase, Banque Misr and the ⁠National Bank ​of Egypt announced a preliminary agreement on rearranging their banking presence in the United Arab Emirates," the Egyptian lenders said in a ⁠joint statement on Tuesday.

They did not mention the sanctions and said that ⁠the potential deal ⁠comes within the framework of a common vision to integrate their external banking presence without disrupting services.