In a press release on the progress of the referral from the company NAPS SA concerning the practices implemented by the Interbank Electronic Payment Center (CMI) in the electronic card payment market, the Council indicated that this revision of interchange allows acquirers to make significant reductions in the pricing applied to merchants, which will encourage the development of electronic payment by card.
This will also make it possible to preserve, for buyers competing with the CMI, a reasonable commercial margin, thus responding to another competition concern noted during the examination of the file, adds the same source.
The Competition Council also specified that the commitments proposed by the CMI and the nine shareholder banks of the latter, as published by the Interim General Rapporteur, dated September 27, 2024, in accordance with the provisions of the paragraph 6 of article 26 of decree no. 2-14-652 taken for the application of law 104-12 relating to freedom of prices and competition as modified and supplemented, includes a tariff component linked to compliance by the Center and its shareholder banks with the interchange ceiling, now set by Bank Al-Maghrib.
“Indeed, in accordance with good international practices in this area, the Competition Council recommended that Bank Al-Maghrib cap the interchange rate since the modalities of its setting by the CMI and its shareholder banks constitute a concern of competition identified as part of the preliminary assessment report,” the press release said. Following discussions between the Competition Council and Bank Al-Maghrib, the latter issued its regulatory decision n°244/W/2024 dated September 20, 2024, relating to domestic electronic payment interchange fees, by which it set the ceiling of these fees at 0.65% of the value of the transaction from October 1, 2024.
In this context, the CMI and its shareholder banks have committed to the Competition Council not to apply an interchange commission per transaction of an amount greater than the aforementioned ceiling.
Furthermore, the Competition Council recalls that despite the opening of the market to competition through the separation of the acquisition activity from that of switching in 2015, the interchange rate has seen successive increases made by the CMI and its shareholders between 2012 and 2019.
These increases had a negative impact on the margins of buyers, which limited competition on the market and resulted in the maintenance of the quasi-monopolistic position of the CMI on the latter. This situation has prevented, among other things, the development of this market, as well as that of electronic payments in general, since it only represents 1% of payments in Morocco, which goes against national digitalization and dissemination strategies. financial inclusion.
Furthermore, the Competition Council recalls, as indicated in its press release of September 27, 2024, that interested third parties can present their observations, within one month from the date of publication of the aforementioned press release, i.e. at most late on October 30.
And to conclude: “The Competition Council will hold its meeting dedicated to the final examination of the file on October 31, 2024. To this end, and in accordance with the provisions of the aforementioned article 26, a summons to the said meeting accompanied by the commitment proposal was sent to the parties under the conditions and forms provided for by the same article.
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