Morocco ratifies agreement setting up Maghreban investment bank
Maghreb, Economics, 4/27/2002

Morocco has ratified the agreement setting up a Maghreban bank of investment and foreign trade (BMICE) and handed the ratification instruments to the Secretariat General of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).

A release by the Rabat-based UMA secretariat general said with the completion of approval procedures, the agreement meets all prerequisites to enter into force as a legal implement necessary to the launching the Bank. The constituent assembly of the bank will take place in Tunis shortly to adopt the financial institution's statutes and nominate the shareholders, the release said.

The bank, to be based in Tunisia, will start operating with a capital of $150 million and raise it gradually to $500 million. Shareholders of the five union's states (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia) will subscribe to the capital composed of 150,000 shares with a nominal value of $1,000 each.

According to previous press reports, the shareholders are likely to be the five countries' central banks. Private banks can be allowed to subscribe to the capital of the Maghreban institution, but central banks would keep controlling stakes.

The project to set up the bank was first adopted by the UMA presidency council at its third session in 1992 in Libya but was frozen after the UMA activities were paralyzed due to strained relations between member countries and especially between Morocco and Algeria over Algiers' direct involvement in the Sahara issue.

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