Visa, Switch Al Maghrib Partner to Combat Payment Fraud in Morocco

Marrakech – Visa and Switch Al Maghrib (SWAM) have announced a strategic partnership to strengthen the security of electronic payments in Morocco through artificial intelligence.

Under the agreement, SWAM will integrate Visa Advanced Authorization (Network Agnostic VAA) into its security infrastructure. The tool provides real-time fraud risk scoring at the moment of transaction authorization, covering both online and in-store card payments processed through the national switch.

The solution is part of Visa Protect, a component of the Visa Value-Added Services suite. It assigns a risk score to each transaction before approval, allowing the system to flag potentially fraudulent operations before they are completed.

SWAM operates as one of Morocco’s five Financial Market Infrastructures. It is licensed and supervised by Bank Al-Maghrib. The entity handles the routing and processing of authorization requests, the clearing of electronic payment transactions, and the settlement of balances between issuers and acquirers.

The partnership comes as electronic payments continue to grow in Morocco, bringing with it a diversification of fraud methods. The integration targets all domestic card transactions processed via the national switch.

Hanae Ben Driss, CEO of SWAM, indicated the move aligns with the institution’s core mandate. “Security is a fundamental pillar of trust in electronic payments. By integrating Visa Advanced Authorization at the heart of the national switch, we significantly strengthen the Moroccan ecosystem’s ability to detect and prevent fraud in real time,” she said.

Ben Driss added that the project fits within SWAM’s mission to provide a robust and resilient national infrastructure aligned with the highest international standards.

Leila Serhan, Visa’s Group Country Manager for North Africa, the Levant, and Pakistan, stressed that the partnership reflects the company’s commitment to the Moroccan market. “Applying Visa’s AI-based fraud prevention capabilities at the infrastructure level reinforces our shared commitment to security, innovation, and consumer protection,” she stated.

The initiative does not alter the payment experience for end users. It operates at the infrastructure level, adding a layer of fraud detection without affecting transaction speed or usability for consumers and merchants.

For SWAM, the integration represents a step in the ongoing modernization of Morocco’s national payment infrastructure, as the country pushes to expand digital payment adoption and financial inclusion.