The Challenges of Migrants Savings: a Necessary Adaptation for Moroccan Banks

Migrants remittances to developing countries have reached $ 529 billion in 2018, which is more than Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) and three times the Official Development Assistance (ODA) to these countries. In some sub-Saharan African countries, they account for as much as 15 to 20 percent of Gross Domestic Product. Many econometric studies have focused in recent years on the impact of this massive flow of foreign capital on the development and growth of the beneficiary countries, with contrasting results depending on the case.

The first part of this article shows the benefits of draining these flows through the banking system (as opposed to other remittance channels) and turning them into bank savings. The second part explains how the Moroccan banking system has managed to capture the financial flows of the Moroccan diaspora, through examples such as that of Banque Populaire du Maroc, a pioneer bank in this field since the 1960s. Finally, the third part of this article highlights the new challenges posed by the generational evolution of the diaspora as well as the ongoing technological disruptions on the sustainability of this model.