Rabat – Bank Al-Maghrib presented its annual report on banking supervision on Monday, July 23, in Casablanca.
The central bank listed 24 banking institutions in Morocco at the end of 2017, up from 19 the previous year, after operating licenses were granted to 5 Islamic bank.
In total, Morocco has 86 loan institutions, and Moroccan banks have 7 branches in foreign countries.
Shareholding in the banking sector has remained stable. Moroccan privately-owned banks account for nearly two-thirds of assets. Public banks hold 18 percent of the market share. Foreign-owned banks have 16 percent of market share. Three banks—Attijariwafa, BMCE, and Banque Populaire—hold 65 percent of the market.
At the end of 2017, the banking sector had 6,388 branches and 7,025 ATMs.
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Moroccan banks are established in 33 countries, 26 of which are African countries and 7 European.
Loans recorded a slight increase of 3.2 percent, reaching MAD 837 billion, due to the increase in households loans by 4 percent and corporates loans by 2.6 percent.
Equipment loans jumped 23 percent, exceeding for the first time the treasury loan, which is following a downward trend.
Housing and consumer loans are growing at around 4-5 percent.
Deposits increased notably by 5.5 percent to MAD 901 billion, mainly driven by household deposits of both Moroccans residing in Morocco and those residing abroad.
Banks netted MAD 10.8 billion last year, up by 17.6 percent, due to a lower cost of risk, the bank’s insurance against defaulting loans, for the first time since 2008. Banks’ cost of risk was MAD 6.4 billion in 2018 reducing from MAD 8 billion during the last two years.
Outstanding debts in 2017 experienced a slowdown of 2.3 percent, totaling MAD 363 billion, representing a default rate of 7.5 percent.
Banks allocated MAD 45 billion for bad debts provision, and achieved a coverage ratio of 71 percent.
Banks have also held MAD 8.4 billion in reserves, covering risky loans and economic fluctuations.
