Morocco's largest bank, state-controlled Banque Centrale Populaire posted a net operating income of 308 million Moroccan dirhams ($28 million) in the first half of 2001. This figure represents a 28 percent rise, compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, reported Al-Hayat.
The bank reported that its total revenues grew to MD 7.617 billion ($692 million), its customer deposits grew to MD 63.9 billion, its loans increased to MD 26.7 billion and its total turnover expanded to MD 73 billion ($6.6 billion).
Banque Centrale forms the central hub of the government's Groupe Banques Populaires, with about $7.1 billion in assets. The network of financial and savings institutions comprises the Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP) and the 19 Regional Popular Banks (Banques Populaires Regionales-BPR).
These densely networked BPRs control one third of the country’s financial resources and one fifth of the labor force. Banque Centrale also controls 60 percent of the total money transfers by Moroccan expatriates, which are estimated $2.2 billion per annum.
Banque Centrale plans to convert itself into a public company and sell 20 percent of its shares on the Casablanca stock exchange. — (Mena Report)
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
