Hada News
UAE and Egypt renew AED 5bn five-year currency swap for local-currency trade
The Central Bank of the UAE and the Central Bank of Egypt renewed a UAE dirham–Egyptian pound currency swap with a nominal value of AED 5 billion (EGP 69 billion / about $1.36 billion) for five years at a signing at CBUAE headquarters on 29 September 2026, both banks said, aiming to support bilateral trade and deeper use of local currencies in settlements.
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) and the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) renewed a UAE dirham–Egyptian pound currency swap with a nominal value of AED 5 billion—equivalent to EGP 69 billion, about $1.36 billion in Arab News’s dollar framing—for five years at a signing ceremony at CBUAE headquarters on 29 September 2026, according to the CBE’s official news page and matching CBUAE language republished via Zawya.
Governors Khaled Mohamed Balama (CBUAE) and Hassan Abdalla (CBE) signed the renewal. Both statements stress financial cooperation, support for trade and investment flows, and promoting local-currency settlements to strengthen market resilience. Arab News adds bilateral trade context from Egypt’s State Information Service—about $9.68 billion in 2025 with Egypt recording a surplus of roughly $4.3 billion—and notes other recent CBUAE swap arrangements (Bahrain, Türkiye) as parallel tools; Hada treats those as colour, not the lead.
Why it matters for Economy desks: a fresh five-year central-bank facility between two of the region’s heaviest trade partners, with an explicit local-currency settlement mandate—actionable for treasury, trade finance and FX coverage desks tracking AED–EGP rails.
Sources: CBE news page, 29 Sep 2026; Zawya CBUAE PR reprint; Arab News.
Watch next: disclosed drawdowns or settlement volumes under the renewed facility, and any operational guidance banks publish for AED/EGP invoicing.