financial integration and inclusive development : a view from the mediterranean countries central banks, financial inclusion and digitization : harnessing technology for inclusive growth intervention of mr. abdellatif jouahri governor of bank al - maghrib madrid, december 13, 2019 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. senen 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. as a result, several stakeholders took various and disparate initiatives, which prompted us to federate them to develop a national financial inclusion strategy. to this end, we proceeded from a situation analysis based on objective supply and demand data, which were collected through field surveys, mainly the findex survey conducted by the world bank in several countries. the paradoxical finding which emerged is that, based on indicators such as credit or deposit - to - gdp ratios or the fsap assessment, morocco ’ s financial system proves to be deep if compared internationally, but suffers from significant inequalities in terms of access. to give you some figures, the share of adults holding an account is estimated by the findex survey at 34 percent at the national level. this proportion ranges from 20 percent in rural areas to 37 percent for urban dwellers, from 17 percent for women to 41 percent for men and from 16 percent for

of our ecosystem. the selected startups have indeed come up with promising solutions to strengthen financial inclusion. that being said, such digital revolution, as we all know, is not only about opportunities, but also about risks and challenges, namely in terms of cybercrime, money laundering and terrorist financing, and personal data protection, etc. this highlights, once again, the need for appropriate regulation. in the banking sector, we, as a central bank, are striving for more agile and appropriate regulation, while offering support to the new actors and ensuring their supervision. with respect to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, the recent mena - fatf assessment highlighted some shortcomings among financial inclusion non - bank actors. hence, a compliance program was set up by the authorities with the aim of remedying this situation in the medium term. as regards personal data protection, morocco has ratified the 108th convention of the council of europe and its additional protocol. since then, it set up a national control unit to ensure proper observation of the various rights ( of information, access, rectification and opposition ). in this respect, the central bank plays an important role as an interface between this unit and financial inclusion stakeholders. however, this legal framework is likely to evolve in view of the regulatory progress made in this area, particularly at the european union level. with regard to cyber security risks, morocco is moving towards developing a strategy for the security of information systems, which would be based on risk identification to provide specific legal, technical and awareness - raising measures to ensure protection, defense and security. this project is coordinated by the national defense administration and the central bank also acts as an interface with financial actors. all these developments, particularly the introduction of new actors in the implementation of the national financial inclusion strategy, will have a significant impact on banks'profitability and will put their traditional business models to the test. while these banks may be hampered by their complex architecture and cumbersome organization, the rapid unbundling of banking services to the benefit of non - banking fintechs could result in a substantial loss in their market share. under these conditions, and taking advantage of technological contributions, many banks have embarked on strategies to develop their services and to diversify their distribution channels. in this respect, a study carried out by bank al - maghrib in 2019 reveals that most banks have concluded contracts with technology start - ups in the form of equity investments and partnerships. however, it should