Circular dated March 17, 2020 regarding participation in bank board meetings via video or telephone during the year 2020

Cairo: 17 March 2020

Dear Mr. Chairman,

Greetings,

With reference to the Bank Governance Instructions issued on 23 August 2011, as well as the instructions issued on 20 September 2018 and their amendments on 29 January 2019, which stipulated that the Board of Directors shall meet periodically and regularly no less than eight times during the year, upon the invitation of the Chairman, or whenever the Chairman sees fit, and which included the possibility of members participating in bank board meetings via telephone or video conference, with the approval of the Chairman and notification of the Board Secretary, not exceeding twice during the year for each member, provided that a majority of the Board of Directors members are physically present.

And in light of the Central Bank of Egypt's keenness to enable banks to perform their duties in the best possible manner under the exceptional circumstances the world is witnessing, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Egypt has decided the following:

To allow the following exceptions regarding Item 2/1(a) of the instructions issued on 29 January 2019 concerning the periodicity of Board of Directors meetings and the number of participations via phone or video, until the end of the current year:

1. Non-compliance with the maximum limit of the number of participations by one Board of Directors member via video or phone.

2. Non-requirement of a majority of Board of Directors members to be physically present.

3. Obtaining prior approval from the Supervision and Inspection Sector of the Central Bank regarding the aforementioned.

This is while the remaining provisions of the instructions issued in this regard remain in force.

Please be kind enough to alert the relevant parties to take the necessary action to implement the aforementioned decision effective from its date.

Yours faithfully,

Tarek Amer