Foreign Exchange Office: Controls Reach a New Scale
In 2025, Morocco’s Foreign Exchange Office reviewed 2,521 case files relating to foreign exchange transactions with a combined value exceeding MAD 72.3 billion. A year earlier, 2,469 files had been examined, covering transactions worth MAD 53.4 billion.
While the number of case files increased by only 2.1%, the value of the transactions under review jumped by 35.4%. At the same time, the number of files involving violations declined from 206 to 172, a decrease of 16.5%.
These figures indicate that inspections focused on significantly larger transaction volumes, even though the number of files reviewed rose only marginally. This development comes as the Foreign Exchange Office continues to modernize its supervisory framework by relying more heavily on a risk-based approach (see related box).
The bulk of inspections remained concentrated on legal entities, which accounted for 79% of the files examined. Banks and foreign exchange dealers represented 58% of the total, while large corporations, SMEs and very small enterprises accounted for 21%. The remaining 21% involved individuals.
The inspections covered both current account transactions and capital transactions subject to Morocco’s foreign exchange regulations. These included, in particular, imports and exports of goods and services, the establishment of assets abroad, and foreign currency exchange activities.
The main violations identified involved the failure to repatriate export proceeds from goods and services, irregular transfers related to imports, the unauthorized holding of assets abroad, and the failure to repatriate income and returns from investments made outside Morocco.
The Office also identified breaches of the regulations governing the activities of foreign exchange companies. The irregularities mainly concerned the repatriation of foreign currency, the justification of transfers abroad, and the holding of assets outside the national territory.
On-Site Investigations Increase by 38.5%
The strengthening of the supervisory framework extends beyond documentary reviews. In 2025, the Foreign Exchange Office conducted 500 on-site investigations, compared with 361 the previous year, representing an increase of 38.5%. Foreign exchange companies accounted for 238 inspections, or 47.6% of the total. Of these, 116 investigations focused on compliance with foreign exchange regulations, while 122 assessed compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CFT) requirements.
The remaining inspections involved 186 companies operating across various sectors and 76 individuals. In the latter case, the investigations primarily focused on the unauthorized establishment of assets abroad without prior approval from the Foreign Exchange Office.
In 2025, the Office referred 158 cases to its litigation services for regularization and legal follow-up, compared with 129 in 2024, an increase of 22.5%.
This rise was driven mainly by cases involving individuals, whose number increased from 26 to 46. Cases involving other legal entities also rose, from 76 to 92. By contrast, cases relating to foreign exchange companies declined from 27 to 20. o
Khadija MASMOUDI
