Poor Treatment of Bank Client in Robbery Incident Sparks Outrage in Morocco

Rabat – A construction worker in Temara has reported having three decades of savings – MAD 162,000 ($16,500) – stolen, with the bank allegedly refusing to properly investigate.

The man said the money is a result of depositing small increments of 200 to 300 dirhams in his account, with the intention of building a house for his mother in Agadir.

The issue has gained increased traction on social media with outcry at the nature of the situation.

“Anyone who has their money in a bank should pay attention,” the victim said in videos published on social media. “It was 35 years of saving. They only left me 300 dirhams.”

The worker said he went to the bank on March 7 to deposit MAD 2000 ($204) into his account, noting that he knew his balance was somewhere around MAD 162,000.

On March 16, the man was surprised to find that his account only had a few hundred dirhams when he went to deposit more, asserting that he had not been to the bank in between those two times.

The bank allegedly claimed that someone withdrew the money from the carpenter’s account, but refused to give any details on the specific agency or how the withdrawal was approved.

The man claimed an employee told him that “nothing can be done for him.”

The victim has expressed that he suspects the money was potentially taken by a bank employee. Someone working in the bank knows the amount that he had in the account, he said.

He was denied access to camera footage, and claims that the bank is only buying time until they can erase the surveillance footage.

With 40 days having passed since the incident, the man whose name remains unknown has been protesting in front of the bank in question for the last two weeks, but still has not received any response from the agency’s director.

Although fingers on social media are pointing towards CIH Bank as the one in the story, the bank put out a post on Facebook denying its involvement and wishing for the victim’s situation to be resolved soon.

“As reports spread about a citizen being the victim of money being robbed from his account, CIH Bank announces that the concerned party is not a client and that the issue relates to another bank,” CIH said on its Facebook page.

The incident raises questions about the nature and quality of customer service in Morocco, and how people are treated differently based on their social class and educational level.

Blue collar employees and those of lower socio-economic standing have often reported being treated inhumanely and left behind in banks and similar institutions.