Morocco Prepares to Launch Open Banking Services by 2027
Moroccan Financial Sector Prepares for a New Digital Transformation Phase
The Moroccan financial sector is poised to embark on a significant step in its digital transformation. Bank Al-Maghrib is advancing in the establishment of a regulatory framework dedicated to open banking services, with a gradual rollout expected to commence in the first quarter of 2027.
With technical support from the World Bank and in coordination with banks and various stakeholders, Bank Al-Maghrib is working on developing a national system designed to regulate open banking services.
This system will enable customers to securely share their financial data with third-party financial applications or companies, provided they give explicit consent. Data exchanges will occur mainly through application programming interfaces (APIs), allowing communication between different digital systems within a regulated framework.
This evolution could revolutionize access to financial services. Users will be able to consolidate multiple bank accounts onto a single platform, execute payments through third-party applications, or benefit from personalized financial services based on their banking data, all while maintaining control over the sharing of their information.
Businesses too are expected to benefit from this development through faster liquidity management and financial flows, the automation of certain accounting and financial operations, and a reduction in some transaction costs.
On a market scale, the regulated opening of financial data is expected to foster competition among various players and encourage the emergence of new products and services, particularly with the growth of financial technology companies.
According to research center BKGR, the project aims to establish a unified, secure, and scalable ecosystem that allows data sharing according to clearly defined rules and ensures interoperability between the different components of the financial system.
Progress is currently being made along two main axes. The first focuses on developing the contractual and regulatory framework for open banking services in consultation with the Professional Group of Banks of Morocco. The second involves defining technical standards, requirements related to application programming interfaces, and establishing a governance structure.
The convergence of these two aspects should help define the Moroccan model for open banking services and outline a roadmap for their gradual national rollout.
This reform comes at a time when the Moroccan fintech ecosystem is experiencing notable growth. Over the past three years, Bank Al-Maghrib has received requests for regulatory opinions or licenses from 48 startups operating in this sector.
Of these, 13 companies participated in discussions organized with the central bank as part of the "Regulatory Sandbox" set up by the Moroccan Fintech Center in October 2025.
The majority of these companies are Moroccan, while eight are established abroad, notably in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, India, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and South Africa.
Their solutions cover a wide range of areas, including payments, crowdfunding, banking intermediation, artificial intelligence-based applications, installment payments, price comparison platforms, escrow accounts, digital savings, and open banking services.
