Moroccan Banks: Profits hit MAD 3.4 billion in 2019 first quarter

At the end of the first quarter of 2019, Morocco’s banking sector posted a 6% increase in profits compared to last year, with 3.4 billion dirhams (MAP).

The first three months of the year 2019 were favorable for the banking sector, states local daily, l’Economist, in its Monday issue.

Overall income of the banking sector grew by 4 % to total MAD 17.4 billion, while profits rose by 6% to reach MAD 3.4 billion, the daily reports.

The results posted by the different banking groups gave off mixed signals as the cost of risk favored some operators and penalized others.

According to the daily, the cost of risk contributed to a slowdown of the growth of Attijariwafa Bank, and Crédit Agricole, and entailed a contraction in results of BMCI and CIH Bank.

The drop in the cost of risk has allowed other banking operators to improve their aggregates. This is particularly the case of Société Générale, whose lower risk burden has favorably impacted profits, which went up from MAD 162 to MAD 323 million.

For Banque Centrale Ppopulaire (BCP), the improvement of 19% of the cost of risk has gone unnoticed in the profits of the banking group, the daily says, explaining the situation by a weak net banking product.