Card acquiring in Morocco: what the market opening changes for merchants

Card acquiring in Morocco (accepting card transactions on behalf of merchants) is no longer reserved for a single player. In decision No. 152/D/2024 of October 31, 2024, the Competition Council made binding a set of commitments concerning card acquiring; its press release of May 19, 2025 states that duly authorized payment institutions and bank subsidiaries dedicated to acquiring may operate in that market as of May 1, 2025. The joint press release of the Council and Bank Al-Maghrib dated July 10, 2026 describes the transition from a single-acquirer model to a multi-acquirer architecture. This guide goes through the texts date by date, explains what they change for merchants and what they do not say.

Card acquiring in Morocco, defined

In the Competition Council's texts, card acquiring is the activity of accepting card transactions on behalf of merchants. It is the merchant-side link of a card payment: the one that turns a sale paid by card, in store or online, into money collected by the merchant. On the other side sits the cardholder's bank, which issued the card; in between are networks and technical platforms. For the full chain of an online payment and the role of each player, the page on the payment gateway in Morocco lays out the diagram.

For a merchant, this is not a theoretical question: every card payment they accept goes through a player that performs this role, whether the merchant knows it or not. That is the market the 2024 decision opened, on a timetable that runs into 2026.

ChariPay is a Moroccan payment platform, a PSP operated by Chari Money, a payment institution licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib. If you want to see in practice what an online payment platform does (the hosted page your customer sees, the 3-D Secure confirmation, the collection in the portal), you can try it with no commitment: Start in test mode. Three fields (name, work email, company), an activation link sent by email to choose your password, then the portal, where you create your test key and make a first payment with the test card. It is free, with no time limit and no approval to wait for: your business verification (KYB) only gates the move to production.

Before the opening: a quasi-monopoly market

The starting point is the Competition Council's decision. In decision No. 152/D/2024 of October 31, 2024, the Competition Council (Conseil de la concurrence) made binding a set of commitments concerning card acquiring (accepting card transactions on behalf of merchants), a market until then marked, in the Council's own words, by a quasi-monopoly.

The 2026 joint press release describes that period as a single-acquirer model: the acquiring link relied on a single interbank operator. By making the commitments binding, the decision set a timetable whose steps and deadlines are given in the two press releases published afterward.

We refer to the incumbent as "the former operator" or "a single interbank operator": its role, not its name, is what matters for understanding what changes. The official texts can be read in full on the Competition Council's website, cited at the end of this article.

The timeline, date by date

Read in order, the table tells the story of an opening in three stages. First the decision, which creates the obligation. Then the actual opening to newly authorized players, with a transitional period. Finally the exit from the old model, with the deadlines for divesting merchant contracts and then, in 2026, the description of a transition to a multi-acquirer architecture. Each row points to a dated text: always check the date of any article on the subject, because the situation has evolved over two years.

From single acquirer to a multi-acquirer model in Morocco

The joint press release of the Competition Council and Bank Al-Maghrib dated July 10, 2026 describes the transition from a single-acquirer model to a multi-acquirer architecture and recalls that the decision required the former operator to divest its entire portfolio of merchant contracts, by January 31, 2026 for private contracts and April 30, 2026 for public ones.

Who are these possible acquirers? The May 19, 2025 press release states that duly authorized payment institutions and bank subsidiaries dedicated to acquiring may operate in that market as of May 1, 2025, and that the transitional period ends on November 1, 2025.

For a merchant, the implication fits in one sentence: for the acquiring link, there can now be more than one possible counterpart, where there used to be only one. What each one offers, on what terms and with what service, is a matter for commercial discussion, not for the texts.

What the opening changes for merchants

The texts support two statements with certainty. Card acquiring is no longer reserved for a single player. And the former operator's portfolio of merchant contracts had to be divested, by January 31, 2026 for private contracts and April 30, 2026 for public ones.

What this means for your own card acceptance contract (who holds it today, on what terms, what has or has not changed) is something no article can settle for you: only your advisor can give an opinion. In practice, three steps help you see clearly:

1. 1Find your card acceptance contract, in store and online, and any letters you have received about it since 2025.
2. 2Identify your current counterpart for that contract, and ask them in writing which entity now holds it.
3. 3Ask the license question of every provider: which entity is licensed, by whom, and for what activity. The next section explains why.

One important point: this article makes no promise of lower prices. What you pay depends on the contract you sign. If you are comparing providers for online payments, the guide on how to choose a payment gateway details the criteria; we do not repeat it here.

"Who holds the license?" matters all the more

When several players can operate, the question "who holds the license?" matters all the more. Behind a brand, a payment page or an app, there is a legal entity that does, or does not, hold a license for the services it provides.

For ChariPay, the answer is public: the license is held by Chari Money, the payment institution that operates ChariPay, licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib under law 103-12. It is this entity, not the brand, that you should look for in official publications; the page on who operates ChariPay gives the details.

To check, start with Bank Al-Maghrib. On its Structure of the banking system page, consulted on October 2, 2026, Bank Al-Maghrib states that at the end of 2024, 93 credit institutions and similar bodies were licensed in Morocco, 18 of them payment institutions. The same page offers a downloadable list drawn up as of December 31, 2019; more recent licenses and changes to the list are published in the Official Bulletin. We copy no name: a copied list goes stale, the official publication prevails.

What a payment institution is, how it is licensed and what it may or may not do is covered in payment institution in Morocco; the commercial role of a provider and how to check its license, in PSP in Morocco.

What the texts do not say

The texts cited here are precise, which is a good reason not to make them say more than they do:

• They do not say who acquires for a given platform. They open a market to categories of authorized players; they do not name the acquirer behind any particular payment platform.
• They do not make ChariPay or Chari Money an acquirer. Nothing in these press releases places ChariPay or Chari Money among the players authorized under the decision: Chari Money's license is that of a payment institution, under law 103-12.
• They give no market shares. We cite none, and we make no prediction about how the market will be shared.
• They do not mention Stripe or PayPal. Stripe's situation is a separate question, covered in Stripe in Morocco.
• And we add nothing they do not say. No statistics on card ownership or use, no estimates, no names of market players.

This article is not legal advice. The press releases also cover other aspects of the framework that it does not repeat: for anything that affects your business, read them in full on the Competition Council's website, at the addresses cited at the end of this article; only your advisor can give an opinion.

Frequently asked questions

What is card acquiring?

It is the activity of accepting card transactions on behalf of merchants: the merchant-side link of a card payment, the one that turns a sale paid by card into money collected. On the other side is the bank that issued the customer's card. In Morocco, before the 2024 decision, this market was marked, in the Competition Council's own words, by a quasi-monopoly.

When did card acquiring open up in Morocco?

On May 1, 2025. The Competition Council's press release of May 19, 2025 states that duly authorized payment institutions and bank subsidiaries dedicated to acquiring may operate in that market as of May 1, 2025, and that the transitional period ends on November 1, 2025. Decision No. 152/D/2024, which made those commitments binding, is dated October 31, 2024.

What does Competition Council decision No. 152/D/2024 say?

In decision No. 152/D/2024 of October 31, 2024, the Competition Council made binding a set of commitments concerning card acquiring, a market until then marked, in the Council's own words, by a quasi-monopoly. The joint press release of July 10, 2026 recalls that the decision required the former operator to divest its entire portfolio of merchant contracts.

Who can now act as a card acquirer in Morocco?

According to the May 19, 2025 press release, duly authorized payment institutions and bank subsidiaries dedicated to acquiring may operate in that market as of May 1, 2025. These press releases do not make ChariPay or Chari Money an acquirer. To find out which entity holds a given provider's license, start with Bank Al-Maghrib: according to it, more recent licenses are published in the Official Bulletin, and the official publication prevails.

What does the move to a multi-acquirer model mean?

The joint press release of the Competition Council and Bank Al-Maghrib dated July 10, 2026 describes the transition from a single-acquirer model to a multi-acquirer architecture. For a merchant, this means the acquiring link can now have more than one possible counterpart, where there used to be only one. Each one's terms are a matter for commercial discussion.

Who holds ChariPay's license?

The license is held by Chari Money, the payment institution that operates ChariPay, licensed by Bank Al-Maghrib under law 103-12. That is the entity to look for in official publications: according to Bank Al-Maghrib, more recent licenses and changes to the list of licensed institutions are published in the Official Bulletin. ChariPay does not present itself as an acquirer.

Does this affect my card acceptance agreement?

The joint press release of July 10, 2026 recalls that the decision required the former operator to divest its entire portfolio of merchant contracts, by January 31, 2026 for private contracts and April 30, 2026 for public ones. As for the effect on your own contract, only your advisor can give an opinion: ask your counterpart in writing which entity now holds it.

Will card processing fees go down?

This article makes no price prediction: what you pay depends on the contract you sign with your provider. At ChariPay, test mode is free, with no time limit and no commitment. Activation costs MAD 6,000 incl. VAT, paid once when you go live. The commission is a percentage per successful payment, set, like the security deposit, once your application has been reviewed.

Next step

Begin by checking who holds the license of each of your providers, using Bank Al-Maghrib's page and the Official Bulletin. For ChariPay, the license is held by Chari Money, and you can see the platform at work before any commitment: Start in test mode. To go further, read payment institution in Morocco and the guide on how to choose a payment gateway.

Sources

• Competition Council — press release of May 19, 2025 on the opening of card acquiring (in French) — read on October 2, 2026
• Competition Council and Bank Al-Maghrib — joint press release of July 10, 2026 (in French) — read on October 2, 2026
• Bank Al-Maghrib — Structure of the banking system — read on October 2, 2026