Banque Commerciale du Maroc

Banque Commerciale du Maroc

Former head office building erected in 1930
Industry	financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding
Founded	1911
Headquarters	Casablanca

Banque Commerciale du Maroc (BCM, Arabic: البنك التجاري المغربي, "Commercial Bank of Morocco") was a bank founded in 1911, shortly ahead of the establishment of the French protectorate in Morocco. The bank was initially controlled by France's Banque Transatlantique, then from 1941 by the Crédit Industriel et Commercial, and from 1988 by Morocco's ONA Group. In 2004, it merged with Wafa bank to form Attijariwafa Bank.

History

The BCM was created in 1911 by the Banque Transatlantique together with its Tunisian subsidiary, the Banque de Tunisie. Its registered office was in Paris, initially at 10, rue de Mogador (later absorbed by the Galeries Lafayette), and from 1925 relocated to the Banque Transatlantique's head office at 17, Boulevard Haussmann. Its main office in Morocco was in Casablanca.

The BCM opened a branch in Tangier in 1913, and after World War I expanded to Rabat and Mazagan, then in the late 1920s in Marrakesh and Fez.

In 1941, BCM was acquired together with Banque Transatlantique and Banque de Tunisie by the Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC), which took advantage of the Vichy anti-Jewish legislation. In 1963, Morocco, which had become independent in 1956, undertook a policy of national control of the banking sector known as marocanisation, and the BCM's registered office was relocated from Paris to Casablanca. That same year, Deutsche Bank acquired 10% of the BCM's equity capital.

In 1969, a further capital increase resulted in significantly higher Moroccan ownership of the BCM's shares. By the late 1970s it was the largest private bank in Morocco, only surpassed by government-controlled BMCE and Crédit Populaire du Maroc.

In June 1988, ONA Group acquired 25% of the BCM's equity through a capital increase and thus became its controlling shareholder, while the CIC reduced its stake to 10.6%.

By 1999, the capital of BCM was 1,325,000,000.00 Moroccan Dirhams for a total of 13,250,000 shares. In 2002, the capital of Wafabank was 639,482,700 Moroccan dirhams. The two banks announced their merger in November 2003 and completed it in 2004, in a friendly all-shares transactions at a parity of 7 BCM shares per 8 Wafabank.

Casablanca head office

New BCM head office building, inaugurated in the early 1980s

In Casablanca, the BCM's head office relocated several times. In 1921, it moved to a building designed by architect Edmond Gourdain on the newly traced boulevard du 4e Zouaves, later renamed boulevard Houphouët-Boigny, just north of the recently erected office of the State Bank of Morocco. The building was shared with the affiliated shipping company, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique. Both these buildings, of the BCM and of the State Bank, have since been demolished.

In 1930, the BCM moved to a building designed by Marius Boyer on 1, rue Galliéni, now rue Driss Lahrizi. The iconic art deco structure, also known as the Lahrizi building, was renovated in 2021.

In the 1970s, under the leadership of its charismatic president Abdelaziz El Alami Hassani, the BCM erected a new pyramid-shaped head office building at 2, Boulevard Moulay Youssef, near the Arab League Park. This became the headquarters of Attijariwafa Bank following the 2004 merger.

See also

• List of banks in Morocco