Morocco to create non-performing loan bourse

Morocco is pursuing plans to create a secondary market for non-performing loans with the aim of easing pressure on banks and expanding lending to the domestic economy.

The country’s central bank, Bank Al-Maghrib, devised such plans four years ago and is now expediting steps to execute the project following a surge in non-performing loans.

At a seminar held in Rabat on Tuesday, central bank governor Abdellatif Jouahri said bad loans accounted for around 8.2 percent of total banking assets by the end of 2025, with a volume that exceeds MAD100 billion ($10.5 billion). He described the ratio as elevated compared with international norms.

Jouahri explained that these loans continue to weigh on bank balance sheets and limit the ability of institutions to extend new credit. 

“A dedicated secondary market would allow lenders to transfer such assets, improve liquidity, and redirect financing toward businesses and households,” he said in comments published on the Moroccan parliament’s website.

He said the project would be carried out with the help of the International Finance Corporation and that it aims to simplify procedures while ensuring that guarantees linked to the loans pass automatically to buyers. 

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“This project also introduces safeguards to protect borrowers, with particular attention to personal data,” he added without mentioning when the bourse would be ready.

Banks in Morocco have recorded a sharp increase in their profits in the past few years.

Net profits rose by 19 percent to around MAD12.5 billion ($1.3 billion) in the first half of 2025 from MAD10.5 billion in the first half of 2024.