The Financial Regulatory Authority in Egypt approved requiring companies and licensed entities operating in consumer finance and financing medium-sized, small and micro enterprises to establish real-time connectivity with credit information company I-Score. The decision aims to expand the scope of regulatory monitoring and improve the accuracy and speed of creditworthiness assessments before and after financing.
The requirement was introduced under Financial Regulatory Authority Board Decisions Nos. 174 and 175 of 2026. The first decision concerns consumer finance companies, while the second covers companies, associations and nongovernmental organizations in categories “A” and “B” licensed to finance medium-sized, small and micro enterprises.
What data will be updated in real time?
Entities subject to the decision must send notifications to I-Score when key stages in the financing cycle occur, rather than only when the loan is granted. The specified cases include:
- Approval and disbursement of the financing to the customer.
- The customer’s full or partial repayment of the financing amounts.
- Termination of the financing.
- Taking judicial or legal action related to the financing.
- A change in the customer’s status concerning the legal or judicial action.
In addition to real-time reporting, consumer finance companies must send data on the financing granted according to a form prepared by the credit information company, within the five days following the end of each month.
Implementation deadline and entities’ responsibilities
The two decisions require the companies and relevant entities to take the necessary steps to complete the electronic connection within three months from the date they take effect. This period will begin to be calculated after their publication in the Official Gazette and on the Authority’s website. The implementation responsibility here rests primarily with the licensed entities, which must align their systems and procedures with the reporting requirements specified by I-Score and the Authority.
Why does this matter?
The actual change does not involve creating a new credit registry, but rather reducing the time lag between the occurrence of a financing event and its recording by the credit information company. According to Financial Regulatory Authority Chairman Dr. Islam Azzam, this is expected to help entities review outstanding financing, monitor customers’ obligations, and verify that financing is used for its designated purpose, in addition to supporting credit-granting decisions and addressing default risks.
For the nonbank financial sector, faster data flows may provide a more consistent basis for monitoring and supervision. For customers, the practical benefit will depend on the accuracy of the data and the speed of its updating, a point Azzam stressed as necessary to reduce the risks of financing decisions based on outdated information.
The text published in the article does not specify the technical interface details, data-protection standards, or mechanisms for handling errors and challenging recorded information. Accordingly, these aspects, along with the data form and connection procedures, will remain important elements to monitor in assessing how the decision is implemented during the specified deadline.