Morocco Urges Citizens to Declare Overseas Assets in New Awareness Campaign

This mission "particularly targets Moroccan citizens concerned by the operation, not only those residing abroad, but also those residing in Morocco and having financial assets, properties or assets located abroad," explains a source from the Foreign Exchange Office to Hespress, specifying that "the declaration and automatic regularization are accelerating during the last three months of each year," which has prompted the Foreign Exchange Office to intensify its awareness-raising efforts.

In a recent press release, the Office had indicated that in addition to its awareness-raising actions within the kingdom, it was also active internationally, with its partners abroad, "in order to succeed in the operation of automatic regularization of property and assets located abroad," reminding "all financial institutions and persons concerned that the 2024 Spontaneous Regularization Operation, which ends on December 31, 2024, represents an opportunity to regularize property and assets located abroad."

"The opening of the Foreign Exchange Office to financial and banking institutions abroad to raise awareness of the importance and necessity of the spontaneous declaration of property and assets outside Morocco is part of the efforts to publicize this operation, which allows institutions to engage in it," said Abderrazak Elhiri, an economic analyst, stressing "the need for those concerned to spontaneously declare their assets, as this makes their possessions abroad more legitimate."

This operation aims to "support the Kingdom’s efforts in the fight against money laundering, which has negative effects on the national economy, as well as negative repercussions on Morocco’s global ranking," added Elhiri. "This declaration of assets abroad will allow the State to generate significant tax revenues that will be used to finance rapidly increasing public expenditures; especially since the demand for public services is clearly growing," said a professor of economics at the University of Fez.

While welcoming this initiative, financial analyst and economic researcher El Mehdi Fakir notes that "spontaneous regularization concerns not only the Moroccan administration, which remains subject to a duty of discretion in this type of file; but the low interaction that the voluntary commitment of persons declaring their assets abroad could record is a shared responsibility between the different actors and mediation forces, and not the fault of the administration or the law which is clear and simplifies the procedures for regularization and discharge of financial obligations."