The amount of transactions on the Web climbed 31% at the end of March
The Moroccan electronic banking activity is still suffering from the health crisis. Stagnation in overall volume was observed in the first quarter of the current year, thus reflecting the significant impact of the current economic situation on this segment. The Interbank Electronic Payment Center (CMI) lists, for this purpose, 103.1 million transactions (+0.2%) totaling an amount of 87.1 billion dirhams (+0.1%). These are the overall achievements of the electronic payment activity, thus accounting for cash withdrawal operations on the ATM network, payment operations with merchants and eMerchants as well as payment operations on ATMs and Cash Advance operations whether through Moroccan or foreign bank cards.
4.5 million online transactions
At the same time, online payment activity maintained its pace, posting double-digit growth at the end of March. The overall amount rose by 31%, reaching a total of 1.8 billion dirhams. This amount is the result of 4.5 million online payment transactions made in the first quarter via Moroccan and foreign bank cards. These transactions are up 58.8% year-on-year. With regard to online payments of Moroccan cards, they have clearly consolidated both in volume and in value. In this sense, we note 4.4 million transactions (+61.4%) for a total amount of 1.8 billion dirhams (+36.6%). The CMI also notes a contrasting behavior of online payments from foreign cards. The number of transactions carried out in this regard increased by 8.3% while their value fell by 33.7%. It thus fell from 111.7 million dirhams in the first quarter of 2020 to 74 million dirhams in the first quarter of the current year.
Contactless increasingly popular
Among the positive trends noted by the CMI in the first quarter, the strong awareness of the use of contactless payment. The related transactions saw their rate reach 25% while it was around 5.2% in the same period of the previous year. The rate of amounts paid through this method rose to 11.5% against 1.6% a year earlier. It should be noted that the current situation has brought about positive changes on the part of both buyers and sellers. We can cite in this sense the greater use of distance selling with either payment via the Internet or payment on TPE 3G on delivery. It should be noted that merchants and eMerchants affiliated with the CMI carried out 24.2 million payment transactions in the first quarter of the year, up 5.8%, on the other hand the amount generated in this direction amounts to 9.9 billion. dirhams, down 13%. Nearly 26% of these payments are sent to the retail sector. Clothing captures 11.4% of payments against 6.9% for stations, 5.9% for furniture and household appliances, 5.4% for restaurants and 5.3% for health.
84.6 MDH of transactions by Moroccan cards
Moroccan cards are still dynamic on the electronic payment landscape. They recorded an increase in both the number of transactions and the number of amounts. 100.9 million payment and withdrawal transactions were carried out in this direction (+2.9%) totaling a value of around 84.6 billion dirhams (+4.6%). By type of operation, withdrawals represent 76.6% of total transactions. 75.5 billion dirhams of withdrawals were made in the first three months of the year, i.e. an increase of 3.9% in amount at a time when the number of transactions was stagnating (79.3 million transactions ). Similarly, payments by Moroccan cards to merchants and eMerchants affiliated with the CMI amounted to 9 billion dirhams, up 11.7%. This amount was generated by 23.1 million operations (+15.3%). On the other hand, the activity of foreign cards experienced a considerable decline during the first quarter of 2021 estimated at 59.7% in overall amount compared to the same period of the year 2020.