Abdellatif Jouahri: Central banks, financial inclusion and digitization - harnessing technology for inclusive growth

Speech by Mr Abdellatif Jouahri, Governor of the Bank of Morocco, at the Conference "Financial integration and inclusive development: A view from the Mediterranean Countries", jointly organized by the Bank of Spain and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) with the support of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Madrid, 13 December 2019.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Governor of the Banco de Espana,
President of the European Institute of the Mediterranean,
Deputy Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean,
Dear friends and colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all, I would like to thank the organizers, particularly the Governor of the Bank of Spain, Mr. Pablo Hernandez de Cos, and the President of the Executive Committee of the IEMed, Mr. Senén Florensa, for inviting me to participate in this conference.

Taking part in the Mediterranean meetings organized by the Bank of Spain has become, for me, a tradition to be preserved, all the more since we are united by a cooperation agreement. It is also my pleasure to speak alongside panelists, both colleagues and friends, on a topic of particular interest to us from each side of the Mediterranean.

Inclusive development issues have been one of the key concerns for Moroccan public authorities for several years now. With regard to financial inclusion in particular, which engages us as a central bank, we have, together with the Ministry of Finance and stakeholders, just finalized and started implementing a national financial inclusion strategy, whose preparation has progressed for a few years now.

Thus, in 2013, we set up the Moroccan Foundation for Financial Education, and introduced, in the 2014 Banking Law, payment institutions with a scope of activity limited to small-value transactions.