Egypt's central bank approves contactless payments through mobile phones

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's central bank has approved the granting of licences to allow merchants to accept contactless payments from their customers' mobile phones, it said on Sunday.

It did not say how soon the new system would be in place or who would be eligible to receive the licences.

New legislation and regulatory changes in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, are helping to unleash a surge in new fintech investments and change the way the country's largely unbanked citizens do business.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)