Moroccan banks issue an outstanding total of 18.6 million cards

Credit cards issued by Moroccan banks reached an outstanding total of 18.6 million cards this year, up 3.8% compared to the end of last year, according to a recent report received by Hespress EN.

A total of 18.5 million payment and withdrawal cards were made under the Visa, Mastercard, Cobadge, CMI-MasterCard labels, and the national CMI brand, added the report.

This growth in outstandings comes as a result of the significant increase in the number of Mastercard-labeled cards (+9.0%), the number of Visa-labeled cards (+1.5%), and in the number of Cobadge CMI-MasterCard-labeled cards (+23.2%), while CMI-labeled cards holders declined (-9.8%) and proprietary cards (-31.9%) compared to December 31, 2021.

Additionally, the outstanding CMI and Cobadge CMI-MasterCard cards totaled 3.7 million on June 30, 2022, up +1.9% compared with December 31, 2021, including 2.1 million CMI cards and 1.6 million Cobadge CMI-MasterCard cards.

Prepaid cards represent 2.8 million cards outstanding, are broken down into 46.0% Visa-labeled cards, 36.5% Mastercard-labeled cards, 17.2% cmi, and Cobadge CMI Mastercard-labeled cards, and 0.2% private label cards, added the same source.

Overall electronic banking activity in Morocco

The overall achievements of the electronic banking activity, including cash withdrawal operations on the ATM network, payment operations with merchants and e-merchants, payment operations on ATMs, and Cash Advance operations, by Moroccan and foreign bank cards in Morocco, reached during the first half of this year a total of 245.5 million transactions, equivalent to MAD 200.6 billion, said the report.

The activity is up by 16.0% in terms of the number of transactions, and 13.2% in the amount compared to the same period last year, added the same source.

Moroccan card activity

During the first half of 2022, Moroccan cards recorded 236.9 million payments and withdrawals for a total amount of MAD 190.1 billion, up 14.2% in terms of the number of transactions and 10.4% in terms of the total amount of transactions, specified the report.

Moroccan card transactions in Morocco break down as follows:

Withdrawals: 73.8% in the number of transactions and 88.4% in terms of amount.

During the first half of 2022, Moroccan card withdrawals from ATMs in Morocco totaled 174.9 million transactions, equivalent to MAD 168.0 billion, up 10.5% in the number of transactions and up 9.4% in terms of the amount compared with the same period in 2021.

Payment at merchants and e-merchants: 25.9% in the number of transactions and 11.5% in amount.

During the first half of 2022, Moroccan card payment transactions with merchants and e-merchants affiliated with the CMI totaled 61.3 million transactions, equivalent to MAD 21.9 billion, up by +27.0% in the number of transactions and +18.7% in terms of the amount compared to the same period a year earlier, according to the same source.