Overview

Financial inclusion is considered by international organizations (World Bank, United Nations, Alliance for Financial Inclusion) as one of the major issues of social and economic development as it promotes economic growth and prevents social disparities.

According to AFI, financial inclusion, per se, is a multifaceted concept, which consists of several components whose degree of importance varies from one country to the other. These include:

Access: the ability to use financial services and products offered by formal institutions

Quality: financial services or products’ ability to meet consumers’ needs. It reflects the consumers experience as demonstrated by their attitudes and opinions towards the products and services made available to them

Use: regular use of financial services or products

Well-being: the impact of the use of financial service/product on the consumers’ quality of life

On the other hand, the United Nations defines financial inclusion through its major projects namely:

Access of all households and businesses to a wide range of financial services at a reasonable price

Sound institutions guided by adequate internal management systems, industry performance standards, performance monitoring, ...

Financial and institutional sustainability, as a means of having access to financial services over a long period of time

Multiple financial services providers, offering a diverse and affordable set of alternatives to customers

Morocco’s experience in financial inclusion dates back to 2007 and is part of a broader strategy to further develop the national banking market, ensure an integrated development of the financial sector by 2020 and position our country as a regional financial hub.

Since then, significant progress has been made in financial inclusion, as particularly welcomed by the recent mission of the World Bank and IMF as part of the FSAP in 2015.

The Bank’s commitment to establishing and promoting sound and solid bases for a responsible finance benefitting to the various categories of the population has been clearly announced from the start and even renewed on the occasion of the 2013 Maya declaration in Kuala Lumpur, during the AFI summit.

Bank Al-Maghrib’s action has concerned the following five dimensions: