Moroccan Central Bank Chief Urges Diplomatic Action as Europe Tightens Diaspora Fund Transfers

"It must be noted that several challenges deserve to be highlighted. This is particularly the case in Europe, where the support activities for Moroccans of the world, practiced for decades by Moroccan banks in full transparency and in compliance with local regulations, have for a few years been facing an unprecedented tightening of their operating conditions," said Abdellatif Jouahri during the Rabat forum on reducing the cost of fund transfers for the African diaspora.

He explained that several banking authorities in European Union countries have decided to suspend the intermediation activity carried out by their banking subsidiaries located in Europe on behalf of the Moroccan diaspora and on behalf of their Moroccan parent companies. The wali of BAM is convinced that the conditions for providing this activity will become even more stringent if the draft European directive, relating in particular to branches of third countries, were to be voted on as it stands. "This draft, the adoption of which is imminent, provides for the prohibition for foreign banks not established in the EU to offer banking services from their country of origin directly to their clients residing in a country of the Union," he continued.

"To these constraints is added the OECD convention on the exchange of tax information, the imminent entry into force of which is causing great concern among Moroccans of the world," noted the official. "It will be necessary to work, in the interest of our continent and our compatriots, so that this standard is deployed without hindering the transfer of funds from migrants."

Faced with these constraints, Abdellatif Jouahri made an appeal: "It seems to us that a major diplomatic action by our countries is necessary to alert to these worrying developments and to work to preserve the achievements and maintain the ties, especially of the last generations of migrants on European soil, with the motherland."