The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) absorbed EGP 609.740 billion in liquidity on Tuesday through its open market tender, from 16 banks, at an interest rate of 19.5%.

The CBE had issued instructions on the rules governing the main deposit operation for open market operations, which it used to conduct through a weekly fixed-rate auction. Under that system, it announced the size of the operation in advance and accepted bids on an allotment basis, determined by each bank's bid as a share of total bids submitted, with the main operation rate applied.

In line with international best practice in managing excess liquidity in the banking system and improving the transmission of monetary policy decisions, the CBE decided to change the bid acceptance method for its main deposit operation from allotment to accepting all bids submitted, with the results of each operation published on the Central Bank of Egypt's website.