“The project involves supplying the Moroccan Central Bank with a technological platform to manage and centralize information, which is at the basis of our credit information system in Italy and in outsourcing for the Credit Bureau of the Czech and Slovakian Republics. We will customize the system as necessary and implement our ‘in-house’ solution at the Central Bank as confirmation that CRIF’s high standards of quality are recognized at an international level.” – states Carlo Gherardi, CRIF’s Managing Director – “The system that we are creating for Bank Al-Maghrib will be the basic infrastructure of a larger project for sharing credit information that the Central Moroccan Bank is developing to support credit institutions in the country in optimal risk management, which involves releasing one or two licenses for credit reporting activity. Having been chosen as Bank Al-Maghrib’s fundamental IT partner is not only a source of tremendous satisfaction for us and confirms the quality of our work, but further stimulates us to continue along the path we have chosen and which characterizes our business model, a path made up of continual investment in technology and in research and development” – continues Gherardi.
The decisive factors that led Bank Al-Maghrib to choose CRIF, after an in-depth evaluation of offers in response to the bid, were CRIF’s skill and experience at an international level in the development and management of advanced credit information systems, with its particular attention to instruments and processes that guarantee the highest levels of data quality. The credit bureau model developed by CRIF in Italy and successfully exported to various countries, is unique worldwide for its distinctive ability to integrate a single credit information database (with both positive and negative information) on companies and families of consumers and to manage information not only on individuals, but also on the one-person companies or businesses associated with them. CRIF’s solution is characterized by innovative technological architecture and by its total care in data processing.
The global strategy of the Central Bank of Morocco, in the area of recent development processes for its IT systems including centralized risk systems, aims to implement a modern system of financial information based on the highest standards and international best practices. The aim of this system is to support shared information on payment behavior by those requesting credit in order to allow banks, financial institutions and micro-credit institutions within the country the means to better credit risk management.
Bank Al Maghrib was founded in 1959. It is a public body with juridical and financial autonomy and has 20 branches in the country. As a Central Bank it regulates and supervises the country’s banking and financial system, together with the Ministry of Finance. There are currently 40 banks and financial institutions in Morocco, some of which are state run and most of which are private. The banking market is the most developed in North Africa and is characterized by a high concentration, with three banks holding a market share of around 63%. The Moroccan banking sector is also strongly concentrated in geographical terms, with most branches located in large cities. Bank Al Maghrib is asking the country’s banking institutes to implement the standard approach of Basel II by 2008 and then that of the IRB by 2012.
