Throne / Attijariwafa bank confident about risk management

– The Economist: What analysis do you make of your African activities?
– Ismail Douiri: That can seem obvious, but first, we are only very marginally present outside the African continent, since our only presence in the form of distribution network and / or regulatory approval is in Europe and the Middle East. moreover, this presence has been initiated for more than 40 years to meet the financial needs of Moroccans living abroad and exporting and importing Moroccan companies.If we exclude Morocco and this historic international presence, our activity in other African countries generated in 2017 33% of our net banking income (the equivalent of the turnover for a bank) and 30% of our consolidated net income group share.
The Attijariwafa bank's positioning on the African continent n, which began with the entry into Tunisia in 2005, is that of a universal bank targeting, in each country, not only the traditional clientele of banks, large companies and wealthy private clients, but also the emerging middle classes and SME / VSE. It is sometimes accompanied by the direct presence of some of our Moroccan subsidiaries, such as Wafa Assurance, Wafasalaf or Wafacash, which have their respective international development strategies.
Thanks to a disciplined and progressive international development strategy, we have been able to create value for our customers, our shareholders and our employees without changing the risk profile of the group.

– Yet The ratings are concerned about the expansion of banks in sub-Saharan Africa as it opens up new channels of risk transmission. What are the main points of vigilance?
– Rating agencies have their own methodologies that are based on a hierarchy of risk ratings. They consider that the best risk in a given country is the sovereign risk, that is to say, that of the state. However, with the exception of Botswana, Morocco currently has the best sovereign rating of the entire African continent (BBB- at S & P and the equivalent among other agencies). Therefore, any investment that a Moroccan company would make in any other African country (except Botswana) would, according to these criteria, degrade the risk profile of this company.
In our case, the strategy is that of a universal bank with a strong retail banking component, which therefore collects deposits locally and uses them for the benefit of borrowers in the same country, while offering clients national and international trade and investment; and migrant remittances. From the beginning of our international development, we have put in place all the governance rules and arrangements that have allowed us, in Morocco, for several decades to have and maintain the best risk indicators. We also ensure strict compliance with all regulations, including those of Bank Al-Maghrib in terms of country risk management. We believe that this system, combined with the diversification of our investments and our assets, as well as a proactive approach, is able to protect us against any sudden or unexpected shock.

– You are not very present in the countries more dynamic English speakers. Do you have projects?
– The international development strategy, regularly reviewed and updated with our governance bodies, takes into account several factors, among which the ease for our teams to quickly understand the regulations and to collaborate with local teams to carry out joint projects. These projects are precisely the source of value creation, as they capture the best practices and synergies between all entities in our group.
Thus, 13 years after our entry into Tunisia, the only non-French-speaking African country in which we have established ourselves is Egypt, but it is a country with which we share our national language, Arabic, and who uses English in some technical working documents, a language widely understood and practiced by our Moroccan teams. We therefore felt no language discomfort in the implementation of our projects in Egypt. We even managed very successfully to switch the information systems of our subsidiary Attijariwafa bank Egypt from those of Barclays to those of Attijariwafa bank in less than 13 months, which is an achievement, in the opinion of all experts consulted.
Language is only one dimension in the analysis of our investment opportunities and we can now say that this dimension is not the most important.