The Moroccan banking sector is one of the largest and most concentrated in north Africa, and many of the country’s leading lenders were posting double-digit return on equity (ROE) ratios before the Covid-19 pandemic, on the back of ambitious expansion into sub-Saharan Africa.
The country’s largest lender, Attijariwafa Bank, posted ROE of 12.9% in 2019, but this slipped to 6.8% as a result of the pandemic. Bank of Africa, meanwhile, posted ROE of 9.3% in 2019, which dropped to 4.9%, according to The Banker Database.
Fellow Moroccan lenders posted similar falls in ROE last year. Groupe Banques Populaire’s ROE fell to 3% last year, down from 8.9% in 2019, while Crédit Agricole du Maroc’s ROE fell from 7.4% in 2019 to 2.4% in 2020.
Trends identified using The Banker Database, an online database providing comprehensive financial data and insight for 4000 of the world's leading banks in 190 countries. Contact us.