National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has received preliminary approval from the Central Bank of the UAE to acquire Banque Misr’s branches in the country, as the two state-owned lenders move to restructure their banking presence in the UAE.

 

The two banks said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had reached an initial agreement to reorganize their UAE operations as part of efforts to integrate their overseas banking presence and ensure an orderly transfer of business.

 

The announcement comes weeks after the US Treasury imposed sanctions on Banque Misr’s UAE branches over alleged links to Iran, identifying them as an important channel for the Iranian government to obtain US dollars and proposing to cut their access to US dollar correspondent banking services provided by US financial institutions.

 

Banque Misr said it was reviewing the US Treasury notice, while the Central Bank of the UAE launched an urgent review of the branches.

The proposed acquisition would allow the UAE operations of the two Egyptian banks to be consolidated under NBE, although the banks did not explicitly link the transaction to the US sanctions in their joint statement.

 

The US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said in August that it had identified 103 potential shell companies linked to Iran’s informal banking sector that used accounts at Banque Misr branches in the UAE between 2024 and June 2026.

 

The UAE has long served as an important financial and commercial hub for Iran, while its banks have held significant deposits linked to Iranian entities that have been subject to US sanctions.

 

The UAE operations are part of the international presence of Banque Misr and NBE, both of which are owned by the Egyptian government. NBE lists a representative office in Dubai on its website.