Morocco’s Central Bank to Investigate Record Remittances from Diaspora

The announcement was made on Wednesday by its governor Abdellatif Jouahri, during the third quarterly session of the bank’s Council in 2021. Experts from various institutions will "study the reasons for the record transfers of Moroccans residing abroad (MRE), in order to understand this phenomenon," the official said.

"After an increase of 4.9% in 2020, MRE transfers would show a significant increase of 27.7% in 2021 to reach a record of 87 billion dirhams, before decreasing by 5% to 82.7 billion dirhams in 2022," BAM noted in a press release.

Thus, this study will be conducted by experts from BAM, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), the Foreign Exchange Office and the Professional Group of Banks of Morocco (GPBM), the note specifies.

Moreover, Abdellatif Jouahri estimated that one of the determinants of the record transfers of MRE is solidarity, particularly in a context marked by the pandemic. A hypothesis supported by the Fintech professor at the University of Chicago, Íñigo Moré, who noted that Moroccans around the world are driven by a duty of solidarity towards their parents and loved ones who remained in the country.