OUFRIDby Imad Oufrid
E-commerce

Accepting card payments on your website in Morocco in 2026: the end of the CMI monopoly and what it means for online merchants

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For years, accepting bank cards on a Moroccan website meant one thing: signing with the CMI (Centre monétique interbancaire) through your bank. That is no longer the case. Here is what happened, what it changes for an online store, and what to do in practice.

In short

What happened

On 31 October 2024, in its decision no. 152/D/2024, the Competition Council made the commitments of the CMI and its shareholder banks binding. The CMI undertook to stop canvassing new clients and signing new contracts, including for its online payment gateway, from 1 November 2024, and to transfer all of its merchant contracts, e-commerce gateway included.

Since 1 May 2025, payment institutions and bank subsidiaries dedicated to acquiring have been allowed to sell their offers. According to the joint statement of Bank Al-Maghrib and the Competition Council of 10 July 2026, the transfer of the CMI portfolio was to be completed by 31 January 2026 for private contracts and 30 April 2026 for public contracts. The same statement notes the shift to a "multi-acquirer" model and a fall in the acquiring fees paid by merchants.

If you had a CMI contract, it has therefore been transferred to another provider: nearly 55,000 contracts were transferred, according to La Vie Éco.

Who signs merchants today

Bank Al-Maghrib's 2025 banking supervision report lists 20 licensed payment institutions. Four of them do acquiring only: Vantage Payment Systems (Payzone), Attijari Payment, CDM Pay and Saham Payment. Other general payment institutions also do acquiring, such as M2T, Naps, Damane Cash, Lana Cash, Al Filahi Cash and Barid Cash.

For your store, the question is no longer "how do I get the CMI?" but "which acquirer, on what terms?". Your bank may steer you towards its subsidiary, but under the commitments approved by the Competition Council, you remain free to choose your acquirer.

Be careful with consumer-facing gateways too: some solutions well known to online sellers do not appear on the official list of licensed institutions and rely on a partner acquirer. That is not necessarily a problem, but ask who holds your funds and under which licence.

Fees: what the new rule says

In its decision of 13 July 2026 (no. 265/W/2026), Bank Al-Maghrib lowered the cap on domestic interchange from 0.65% to 0.50% excluding VAT from 1 October 2026, with a cap of 0.15% excluding VAT for e-government and local shops.

Two important points:

Public prices are rare: YouCan Pay, for example, displays 3.9% + 2 MAD per transaction with a Moroccan card, with volume limits and a 30% reserve on takings held for 30 days. The rates of licensed acquirers are negotiated.

What an online merchant should do

1. Ask for at least two or three quotes, and put the same questions to each provider:

2. Compare the real cost on your average basket: a fixed amount per transaction weighs much more on a 150 DH basket than on a 1,500 DH one.

3. Plan the technical integration. Changing acquirer may mean changing payment plugin, re-running tests and checking the return pages (payment accepted, declined, cancelled). Count in days, not minutes.

4. Keep the alternatives. Cards do not replace cash on delivery, which remains dominant in Morocco. Instant transfer, which exceeded 71 billion DH in the first half of 2026, is an option for large baskets or business customers (capped at 20,000 DH at launch; check the current limit with your bank).

What we do not know yet

I will update this article as soon as new official information is published.

Run the numbers

Before signing, measure your real margin per delivered cash-on-delivery order, refusals and returns included, with the COD profitability calculator. The guide Receiving money from Morocco in 2026 compares all the ways to get paid.

Sources (in French)

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