Cash cycle
The issue of banknotes and coins is the first phase in the fiduciary money cycle. It is a privilege granted by law to the Central Bank, being the sole authority responsible for assessing and maintaining the fitness of the banknotes and coins in circulation. It may authorize specialized private companies specializing in this field to undertake this activity, subject to conditions defined by the Bank.
Bank Al-Maghrib withdraws from circulation any banknotes and coins that no longer satisfy the conditions of circulation.
Furthermore, the Bank refunds any mutilated, altered, or deteriorated banknotes when they bear all the identification features. It also decides on the value of any banknotes that do not display all of said features.
The Bank also assesses whether it is suitable to exchange any altered or mutilated coin that may have therefore become unidentifiable.
In addition, Bank Al-Maghrib withdraws from circulation, and cancels, without compensation, any counterfeit banknotes and coins presented to the Bank, or any banknotes or coins deemed likely to be used for fraudulent purposes, or in such a manner as to tarnish the prestige of the Moroccan currency.
Accordingly, Bank Al-Maghrib is committed to performing the tasks assigned to it by pursuing a Clean Note Policy (CNP).
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| 1 | Bank Al-Maghrib supplies its network of 20 branches with operational stocks of banknotes and coins; |
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| 2 | Each branch supplies banknotes and coins to the commercial banks within its scope of operation; |
| 3 | All banknotes and coins are made available to the public via ATMs or through direct withdrawal from bank agencies; |
| 4 | Once the banknotes have been used in several transactions, they are returned to local bank agencies; |
| 5/6 | The banks then send incoming banknotes and coins for authentication and qualitative processing to Private Sorting Centres (PSC) or to the relevant Bank Al-Maghrib branch; |
| 7/9 | PSCs process the bills and coins, separating out valid ones, which are then recycled directly via the banks. Surplus, as well as bills and coins that do not meet circulation requirements, are subsequently returned to Bank Al-Maghrib; |
| 8 | Banknotes deposited at Bank Al-Maghrib's branches for processing are dealt with locally, subject to the resources available at each branch. The remaining qualitative processing is carried out at the central level; |
| 10 | As a final step, Bank Al-Maghrib cancels and/or destroys any banknotes that are not fit for recirculation. |
Banknote handling equipment certification tests
Bank Al-Maghrib has set up a free service oriented toward supporting suppliers of banknote handling equipment, aimed at verifying the ability of the tested equipment to count, authenticate and qualitatively process Moroccan banknotes.
This protocol allows for an assessment of the equipment's ability to recognize genuine banknotes and automatically isolate those of dubious authenticity or manifestly counterfeit ones. It further evaluates the ability to separate valid banknotes from those that should be withdrawn from circulation for quality reasons.
Upon completion of the tests, a certification statement is issued to the relevant supplier, thus enabling it to market its equipment to the note-handling industry nationwide, in accordance with the applicable regulations.
In this respect, it should be noted that equipment that has passed the tests is subjected to annual compliance checks by the relevant departments of Bank Al-Maghrib.
