The long-awaited futures market is launched this Tuesday, November 12, 2024 in Casablanca by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Moroccan Capital Market Authority (AMMC) and Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM). They also launched the central counterparty called the Clearing House (CCP), which is a centerpiece of the futures market.
Considered by their initiators as “a new structuring step in the transformation of market infrastructures“, these two projects “will come complete the Moroccan capital market and bring it into the closed circle of financial centers with an integrated market infrastructure, fully playing its role in financing our economy», Indicates Nadia Fettah Alaoui, Minister of Economy and Finance, during the press conference organized on the occasion of the launch of the futures market.
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This transformation, she explains, is based in particular on the structuring of the Casablanca Stock Exchange into a holding company which will lead to the subsidiarization of all activities in the value chain. These are the spot market, the futures market and the CCP, with a “significant” stake in Maroclear.
This project was the subject of a global memorandum of understanding between the MEF, the AMMC, BAM, the Moroccan Insurance Federation (FMA), the Casablanca Stock Exchange, the Professional Group of Banks of Morocco (GPBM ) and Maroclear.
To accelerate the deployment of this change, the leaders of this project have also taken active participation by banks in the capital of CCP. The related memorandum of understanding was signed between GPBM and the Casablanca Stock Exchange.
The first approval requests received by the AMMC
In addition, a partnership agreement for the development of the stock market was signed between market players. These are the AMMC, the FMA, the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), the Moroccan Association of Companies Making Public Offerings (APE), the Association of Management Companies and Funds. Moroccan Investment Companies (ASFIM), the Moroccan Association of Capital Investors (AMIC) and the Professional Association of Brokerage Companies (APSB).
On this occasion, Nezha Hayat, president of the AMMC, revealed that the latter has already started to receive the first requests for authorization from future trading and clearing members of the futures market, as part of the Futures market coordination body. Likewise, she added, the AMMC recently received the file relating to the first derivative product which could be listed on the Derivatives Exchange by the company managing the futures market.
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To contextualize this launch of the futures market, Nadia Fettah Alaoui indicated that derivative products have been, since the outbreak of the international financial crisis of 2008, at the center of the concerns of regulatory authorities.
These, she notes, have initiated, over several years, an important process of reforms on an international scale, with the implementation of regulatory requirements in terms of own funds, margins, compensation by counterparties central and reporting.
However, she wishes to emphasize, “the distrust that derivative products have generated and the strengthening of regulatory requirements at the international level should not obscure the importance of these products”, on several levels.
Derived products: Nadia Fettah advocates caution
It is, she specifies, the completeness of financial markets, the continuation of the process of financial innovation, the improvement of liquidity and the depth of the markets for underlying assets and above all the providing commercial and financial risk hedging instruments to a wide range of end users (private and public companies, asset managers, pension funds, banks, governments, etc.).
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For the minister, the regulation of derivatives always constitutes a concern for advanced economies, but it also represents an important issue for emerging and developing countries. These, she believes, must ensure a delicate balance between, on the one hand, greater integration into the international financial market and attraction of foreign direct investments (FDI) and, on the other hand, better protection of the economy against financial risks.
It warns that a massive inflow of capital can lead to overheating of the economy and the creation of speculative bubbles, while a sudden outflow of capital can cause a financial crisis. Which requires “ensure the proper use of derivative instruments without slowing down innovation», she recommends.
