Sending money from Italy to Egypt: the payments stack
Sending EUR 140 from Italy to Egypt cost 9.02% of the amount on average in Q3 2025, across 21 services in the World Bank's Remittance Prices Worldwide survey. Payouts in Egypt typically run over IPN / InstaPay, CBE RTGS; between now and the end of 2027 there are 3 weekdays when banks in Italy are closed but Egypt keeps paying out, so the payout balance has to be funded before them.
| Average cost to send | 9.02% of EUR 140 (Q3 2025, World Bank RPW) source |
| Money transfer operators | 4.5% across 11 services |
| Banks | 27.01% across 4 services |
| Collect in Italy | SEPA Instant Credit Transfer (SCT Inst), TIPS (TARGET Instant Payment Settlement), T2 (RTGS and CLM), SEPA Credit Transfer (SCT), CENTROlink |
| Pay out in Egypt | IPN / InstaPay, CBE RTGS, EG-ACH |
What it costs to send EUR 140
The World Bank surveyed 21 services sending from Italy to Egypt from 8 August 2025 to 1 September 2025. The average total cost, fees plus the FX margin, was 9.02% of the amount sent; money transfer operators averaged 4.5% and banks 27.01%. source
Bank and operator averages are worked out from the survey's provider types.
The send side: Italy
- PSD2 sets initial capital for payment institutions at 20,000 euros for money remittance only, 50,000 euros for payment initiation and 125,000 euros for the services in points 1 to 5 of Annex I (Article 7). source
- An e-money institution must hold initial capital of at least 350,000 euros at authorisation (EMD2, Article 4). source
- A payment institution that wants to provide services in another Member State for the first time notifies its home competent authority of the Member States, the services and any agents or branches it will use (PSD2, Article 28); agents are entered in the home register before they start (Article 19). source
Licences, sponsor banks, collections, ramps and KYC providers: sending from the Eurozone.
The payout side: Egypt
| Payout partner | What it does in Egypt | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Thunes · our guide | Its money transfer API pays EGP in Egypt to bank accounts over RTGS and the Instant Payment Network, to mobile wallets and for cash pickup through Fawry Plus, with Banque du Caire branches as the fallback. | source |
| TerraPay · our guide | Its API pays Egyptian bank accounts (bank name, account number and SWIFT/BIC) and InstaPay-based bank transactions using the EG_INSTAPAY provider code with a 14-digit InstaPay account number. | source |
| dLocal · our guide | Payouts V3 pays EGP to bank accounts (BIC and IBAN) and to Vodafone, Etisalat, Orange and bank wallets for B2C, B2B and P2P flows. | source |
| Nium · our guide | Pays EGP to all major Egyptian banks T+1 with a 13:00 GMT cut-off, Sunday to Thursday, and to wallets including Vodafone Cash, Orange Cash and Etisalat Cash same day, Sunday to Thursday; P2P bank payouts are capped at USD 15,000 per end-user. | source |
| Flutterwave · our guide | Supports bank and mobile wallet payouts to recipients in Egypt through its dashboard and APIs, enabled after full KYC review. | source |
Licensing, local banks, stablecoin ramps, FX and KYC in Egypt: launching payments in Egypt.
Payout rails in Egypt
| Rail | Operator | What matters for payouts | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| IPN / InstaPay | Egyptian Banks Company (EBC), for the Central Bank of Egypt | Launched on 22 March 2022, the IPN links all banks operating in Egypt for real-time transfers on weekdays and official holidays to accounts, wallets and cards; InstaPay limits are EGP 70,000 per transaction, EGP 120,000 per day and EGP 400,000 per month, per bank registered in the app. | source |
| CBE RTGS | Central Bank of Egypt | Real-time gross settlement owned and operated by the CBE, open 08:30 to 16:30 every working day; all banks are direct participants, and it settles the netting results of the CBE cheque clearing house, the National Switch and EBC's ACH. | source |
| EG-ACH | Egyptian Banks Company (EBC) | Bulk interbank clearing of direct credits and debits; EGP batches are processed for settlement in the CBE RTGS from 09:00, 10:45, 12:45 and 14:45, with an end-of-day batch from 15:45. | source |
Holiday gaps to plan for, to December 2027
Weekdays when one side of the corridor is closed. On the 3 dates when Italy is closed and Egypt is open, the payout balance has to already hold enough to cover them. On the 18 dates when Egypt is closed, instant rails may still pay out.
| Date | Italy | Egypt | What it means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fri 25 Dec 2026 | Christmas Day | Open | Prefund Egypt the day before: no funding from Italy, payouts continue |
| Fri 1 Jan 2027 | New Year's Day | Bank holiday (end of banks' financial year) | Both closed |
| Thu 7 Jan 2027 | Open | Coptic Christmas | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Mon 25 Jan 2027 | Open | January 25 Revolution and National Police Day | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 28 Jan 2027 | Open | January 25 holiday, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Tue 9 Mar 2027 | Open | Eid al-Fitr (day 1) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Wed 10 Mar 2027 | Open | Eid al-Fitr (day 2) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 11 Mar 2027 | Open | Eid al-Fitr (day 3) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Fri 26 Mar 2027 | Good Friday | Open | Prefund Egypt the day before: no funding from Italy, payouts continue |
| Mon 29 Mar 2027 | Easter Monday | Open | Prefund Egypt the day before: no funding from Italy, payouts continue |
| Mon 3 May 2027 | Open | Sham El-Nessim | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 6 May 2027 | Open | Labour Day, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Mon 17 May 2027 | Open | Eid al-Adha (day 2) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Tue 18 May 2027 | Open | Eid al-Adha (day 3) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Wed 19 May 2027 | Open | Eid al-Adha (day 4) | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 10 Jun 2027 | Open | Islamic New Year, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Wed 30 Jun 2027 | Open | June 30 Revolution | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 1 Jul 2027 | Open | June 30 holiday, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Fri 23 Jul 2027 | Open | July 23 Revolution Day | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 19 Aug 2027 | Open | Mawlid, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Wed 6 Oct 2027 | Open | Armed Forces Day | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
| Thu 7 Oct 2027 | Open | Armed Forces Day, possible Thursday substitute | Egypt banks closed: only always-on rails pay out |
Full calendars: Euro area (TARGET2/T2 and SEPA) and Egypt. Size the buffer with the corridor runway calculator.
Funding the corridor
- At the Bundesbank, T2 RTGS accepts customer payments from 02:30 to 17:00 and bank-to-bank payments from 02:30 to 18:00 on business days, so non-instant euro funding must be sent within those windows. source
- T2 has a non-optional maintenance window every week from 02:30 Saturday to 02:30 Monday, extended over TARGET closing days (for example from Good Friday to the Tuesday after Easter); when the optional weekday window (03:00 to 05:00) is activated, settlement of liquidity transfers in TIPS is affected while TIPS keeps processing instant payments. source
- CBE RTGS business days run Sunday to Thursday, excluding participants' public holidays, and the CBE can declare a public holiday a business day if necessary. source
- The RTGS daily schedule sets the cut-off for bank-to-bank payments at 16:30, so interbank pound settlement closes each working afternoon. source
- The CBE describes IPN services as instant transfers 24/7 to all banks' customers, and inbound remittances can be credited to accounts in real time through the IPN at licensed banks. source
Running the corridor
Polynopsis shows every balance on both sides of this corridor in one live position: the collection accounts in Italy, the payout partners and banks in Egypt and any stablecoin in between. It warns before the Egypt balance runs dry, holidays included. See how it works.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to send money from Italy to Egypt?
The World Bank's survey put the average total cost of sending EUR 140 at 9.02% in Q3 2025, across 21 services. Money transfer operators averaged 4.5%.
Which rails pay out in Egypt?
Local payouts run over IPN / InstaPay, CBE RTGS, EG-ACH.
When do I need to prefund Egypt payouts ahead of holidays?
Between now and December 2027 there are 3 weekdays when Italy is closed and Egypt is open, the first on Fri 25 Dec 2026. The payout balance has to cover those days before they start.
Related corridors
Sources
- World Bank, Remittance Prices Worldwide dataset · World Bank
- T2 (opening hours and closing days) · European Central Bank
- TARGET Systems operating schedule, euro · European Central Bank
- National Holidays 2026 · Presidency of the Arab Republic of Egypt
- Ministerial Decree Setting Official Paid Holidays for Workers No. 294 of 2025 · Mondaq
Know where all your money is.
Polynopsis gives cross-border payment teams one live position across every bank, payout partner, exchange and wallet, including money in flight, and warns before a corridor runs dry.