CAIRO  - Egypt has shifted its secondary market for bonds and other securities to the stock exchange and away from the central bank to make trading more transparent and accessible to a wider group of investors, the central bank said.

Until now the secondary market had been controlled by the Egyptian Central Securities Depository (ECSD), owned 70% by the central bank.

Egypt's official gazette on Sunday published a set of fees that the stock exchange would charge, drawing complaints from traders they were too expensive and would likely dampen trade.

But on Monday, the fees were reduced to half those published the previous day, traders said.

Under the new prices, any bond trading operation will cost five Egyptian pounds for every 100,000 pounds traded, with a maximum charge of 5,000 pounds. The original price had been 10 pounds for every 100,000 pounds traded.

Treasury bills of one year or less will also cost five pounds per 100,000 pounds traded, but with a maximum charge of 500 pounds for trades of less than 50 million pounds and of 1,000 pounds for trades of more than 50 million pounds.

(Reporting by Patrick Werr; Editing by Bernadette Baum)