The Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC) noted 7 infractions in 2023, which led it to impose administrative and financial sanctions on several companies, including a subsidiary of the BMCE banking group. These sanctions follow the observation of 4 breaches mainly linked to inadequacies in the systems to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, as well as shortcomings in the internal control system.
According to the AMMC's annual report for the year 2023, these offenses led the Authority to issue a warning and a financial sanction of 50,000 dirhams last March against BMCE Capital Gestion. A warning was also sent to the company IRG Asset Management due to shortcomings in the processing of certain transactions and deficiencies in first and second level controls.
In the same context, the report indicates that the AMMC disciplinary council examined, in 2023, 7 files concerning five management companies and two individual investors. On this basis, 7 opinions were sent to the presidency of the AMMC.
According to the same source, these opinions include an assent recommending the imposition of a disciplinary and financial sanction against a management company of an undertaking for collective investment in transferable securities (UCITS), another opinion compliance recommending a disciplinary sanction against a UCITS management company and three assents recommending financial sanctions against three UCITS management companies.
Also, two opinions were issued recommending the transmission of a file to the competent judicial authority due to facts likely to be qualified as criminal offenses attributed to natural persons.
The report specifies that the assents issued by the disciplinary council in 2023 resulted in a disciplinary and financial sanction as well as a disciplinary sanction against two UCITS management companies.
Furthermore, on the basis of the recommendations of the disciplinary council, the presidency of the AMMC transmitted to the competent public prosecutor facts which could be considered as an offense linked to manipulation of stock prices.
The report recalls that the AMMC disciplinary council is an independent body whose main mission is to examine facts likely to lead to administrative sanctions, emphasizing that the creation of this collective council established a fundamental principle of regulation, namely the separation between the examination of the facts on the one hand, and the observation of breaches as well as the imposition of the corresponding disciplinary and/or financial sanctions on the other hand.
