Attijariwafa Bank
Attijariwafa bank is a Moroccan international financial services group headquartered in Casablanca. It was established in 2004 through the merger of Banque Commerciale du Maroc and Wafabank, creating one of the largest financial institutions in the country. Since the merger, Attijariwafa Bank has consistently ranked as the leading bank in Morocco by assets and market share.
Attijariwafa Bank operates an extensive international network, with a strong presence across North, West, and Central Africa, as well as representative offices and subsidiaries in Europe and Asia. Its expansion into sub-Saharan Africa has been a key component of its growth strategy since the mid-2000s.
As of the early 2020s, Attijariwafa Bank ranked among the largest banking groups in Africa by Tier 1 capital, placing it within the top five African banks according to international financial rankings.
The bank is listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange and is majority controlled by Al Mada, a Moroccan investment holding company owned by the Moroccan royal family.
History
The modern Attijariwafa Bank was established in 2004 through the merger of two long-standing Moroccan banks: Wafabank and Banque Commerciale du Maroc. Wafabank’s history dates back to 1904, when the Compagnie Française de Crédit et de Banque opened a branch in Tangier; this entity eventually became Wafabank after several reorganizations and a name change in 1985. BCM was founded in 1911 with the establishment of a branch of Banque Transatlantique in Tangier and later grew into a major commercial bank in Morocco. The merger combined the legacy networks and operations of both banks into a unified financial group operating under the name Attijariwafa Bank.In 2005, Attijariwafa Bank in consortium with Banco Santander acquired 54 percent of Banque du Sud in Tunisia, subsequently renamed. In Senegal, it obtained a banking license in 2005 and started its own operations in 2006; acquired a 67 percent stake in the country's fifth-largest bank, Banque Sénégalo-Tunisienne, in January 2007; and acquired a 79 percent stake in the Compagnie Bancaire de l'Afrique Occidentale in April 2008, which it merged with its other Senegalese operations in December of that year, under the name CBAO Groupe Attijariwafa Bank.
In November 2008, the group acquired a 51 percent stake in . In late 2009, it acquired the operations of Crédit Agricole in four more countries, namely,,, and . In December 2010, it partnered with BCP Group to acquire an 80 percent stake in BNP Paribas Mauritanie, then purchased a 51 percent stake in, and in September 2013, a 55 percent stake in Banque Internationale pour l'Afrique au Togo. In 2017, it acquired 100 percent of the former Barclays subsidiary in Egypt. In the meantime, the group also established operations in Guinea-Bissau in 2008, and through its Senegalese subsidiary CBAO in Burkina Faso in 2011, Niger in 2013, and Benin in 2015.
By end-2018, Attijariwafa Bank had operations in 15 African countries with a network of over 4,300 branches which it viewed as the most extensive in Africa.
On 8 November 2022, Attijariwafa Bank partnered with Union Bank of Nigeria to expand its operations in Africa.
On 10 August 2023, Attijariwafa Bank has launched a new payment solution powered by Apple Pay.
As of end-2023, the group's operations in Africa outside Morocco represented around a quarter of its total assets, with the largest contributions coming from Tunisia, Egypt, Côte d'Ivoire, and Senegal.