Financial Reform and Behaviour Change: the Problem of Financial Savings in Morocco

Hicham CHERRADI * Autorité marocaine du marché des capitaux (AMMC). Contact : hicham.cherradi@ammc.ma.

Said TOUNSI ** Université Mohammed V, Faculté des sciences juridiques, économiques et sociales de Rabat Agdal, Laboratoire d'économie appliquée. Contact : sadtounsi@gmail.com ; said.tounsi@um5.ac.ma.L'opinion exprimée par Hicham Cherradi est celle de l'auteur et ne reflète pas nécessairement celle de l'AMMC.Les auteurs remercient le professeur Mohamed-Raja Amrani pour ses précieuses remarques.

Channeling financial savings to the productive sector is a central concern to finance the growth of the countries of the southern of the Mediterranean shore and to avoid resorting to external debt that could question the macroeconomic balance. Paradoxically, there is a lack of statistics regarding this region to understand financial savings.

Morocco is one of the countries that has undertaken the most important structural reforms of its financial system since the second half of the 1990s through the modernization of the legal and regulatory framework and technical infrastructure. However, changes in actors behavior are slow to manifest. The volume of financial assets drained by the Moroccan financial system is one of the largest in the southern Mediterranean region, but the latter remains largely dominated by financial firms. Few households hold financial instruments mainly because of their level of debt, income inequality and tax distortions.

The challenge for governments would be to broaden the base of savers, notably through the introduction of new financial instruments, financial education and the revision of the pay-as-you-go pension system.