Retail Payment Systems
In the OIC Member Countries
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Système des Règlements Bruts du Maroc (SRBM) is a payment infrastructure that allows
efficient and secure transfers between participating financial institutions and helps to
strengthen the effectiveness of monetary policy. The SRBM is managed and administered by
Bank Al-Maghrib through the Payment Systems Department under the Directorate of Monetary
Operations and Changes. The Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib announced the start of work on the
implementation of their RTGS on 30 November 2005.
Système Interbancaire Marocain de Télécompensation (SIMT) developed by Bank Al-Maghrib
and the banking community as part of the modernisation of payment systems in Morocco for
handling mass transactions for all means of payment, excluding credit cards. This system is
designed to substitute the physical exchange system of cashless payment instruments with the
channel of clearing that ensures the exchange, clearing and settlement in automated form
gradually over the whole national territory.
Maroclear was established in 1997 as a Central Depository of Securities. It offers its customers,
consisting exclusively of issuers, banks and brokerage firms, a wide range of services in
response to both market needs and compliance requirements with international standards.
Maroclear is a limited liability company owned by the state, banks, Bank Al-Maghrib, the
insurance companies, the Caisse de Depot et de Gestion and the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
Centre Monétique Interbancaire (CMI) centralises, for the benefit of the banking system, the
processing of all interbank electronic banking operations, both at national level and abroad. Its
role is to centralise the processing of all interbank electronic banking operations both
internally and with other countries. Its creation allowed and the inter-bank business at
payment terminals as well as at ATMs for widespread interoperability withdrawal at national
level.
Retail Payment Systems
The current retail payment instrument demand is cheque-based. In 2008, 27.2 million cheques
were processed, for a total value of 903, 122 million MAD.
Cheques are processed through Morocco’s Remote Interbank Clearing System or SIMT.
Cheques are standardised, processing of cheques is automated, and cheque truncation is used.
Net balances are calculated and settled once a day, and final settlement takes place through an
RTGS system. As for risk controls, participants have access to information on their preliminary
position in the clearinghouse during the day; the operator provides ultimately liquidity to the
system.