In June, Bank Al-Maghrib, Morocco’s central bank, launched instant interbank transfers, a new electronic payment service that enables people to transfer money in less than 20 seconds between accounts held at different banks.
The payment system is free of charge for individual customers for three months, after which the service fees will be decided according to each bank. The service will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
It is too early to estimate how much the new service will affect banks’ revenue. National lenders face an uncertain operating environment outlook in 2023, says Fitch Ratings. The rating agency projects gross domestic product growth will recover to 3% in 2023 after a sluggish 1.1% in 2022, a figure affected by a 15% contraction in agricultural output due to a severe drought.
Return on equity in the past few years has been on a downward trend for the country’s major banks, hence results at the end of 2022 were mixed. Credit du Maroc saw the indicator drop to 6.26% while Attijariwafa, the country’s largest bank, managed to reverse the trend and reached 12.01%.
