The dreaded European banking directive CRD VI, which will be applied in 2025, will toughen EU legislation towards banks in third countries, including Morocco. It will consist of restricting the marketing of several services, in particular to the Moroccan and African diaspora living in Europe, a key player in the economic and social development of Africa.
Indeed, if we stick to the texts, the regulatory authorities and the central banks of several European States should suspend the activity of intermediation, on behalf of the parent companies of third States. It is the African diaspora residing in Europe who will suffer first since subsidiaries and banks will be prevented from offering their services to their customers in Europe.
The French lawyer Alain Gaudin declared without being mistaken last September in a column in the newspaper Le Monde that ” the African diaspora is a key player – more stable than official development assistance and foreign direct investment – in the economic and social development of Africa“. As we can see, the CRD VI directive endangers the Africa-Europe partnership.
That said, Moroccan banks would have to make some adjustments to capital requirements, but this will not change much of the collateral damage in perspective.
For many specialists, this is an obstacle to the banking of the diaspora. This will feed informal circuits that can be used for money laundering networks. The Wali of Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM), Abdellatif Jouahri during a forum devoted to the costs of migrant remittances, held recently at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, had moreover deplored this situation.
For Jouahri the role of ” broker » among other services, which the subsidiaries of Moroccan banks in Europe pride themselves on. is a pillar of the economic model“. For foreign banks not established in the EU, which of course include Moroccan women, despite their European passports, they see themselves there, penalized by a text which prohibits them from offering banking services from the country of origin directly to their customers. residing in an EU country.
The Moroccan banks, concerned according to BAM, are established through their subsidiaries, representative offices and branches in seven European countries, hence the hard blow that the European directive CRD VI would deal to these Institutions. The MRE or Moroccans of the world of their resources have, from their deposits during the past financial year, contributed to fill the coffers of 198.5 billion dirhams (MMDH) out of a total of 1.134 billion.
In this context, one can legitimately wonder about the European political attention given to us by the EU and its ability to strengthen and sustain its economic partnership with Africa, including the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen , had nevertheless recalled the need, during the 6e Africa-EU summit. The inconsistency with European policy could not be more flagrant and the contribution of money transfers as well as the “bi-banking” in the economic link between the two continents is suddenly greatly affected.
This is paradoxical, because on the one hand, the CRD VI directive requires banks from third countries to create a branch in each EU country where they carry out an activity and prohibits them from marketing, on their soil, to diasporas , the banking services they need in their country of origin. In fact, uMoroccan bank will no longer be able to offer its MRE customers in Europe to conclude banking contracts under Moroccan law, it will have to limit itself to providing only European and not foreign banking services.
What won’t be missing to impact business for third country banks. On the other hand, as if to better tie up the file, we have incorporated the environmental, social and governance risks known as “ESG”, just to ensure that the bank is committed to a business model and a general strategy aligned with EU climate goals.