Banque Centrale Populaire

Industry	Finance
Founded	2 February 1961
Headquarters	Casablanca, Morocco
Products	Financial services
Revenue	DH 20,1 billion (2021) [1]
Net income	DH 2,7 billion (2021) [2]
Total assets	DH 465 billion (2021) [3]
Website	www.gbp.ma

BCP Group, also referred to as Crédit Populaire du Maroc (lit. 'People's credit [bank] of Morocco') and popularly known under the brand Banque Populaire or Chaabi, is a major financial services group in Morocco, headquartered in Casablanca. The acronym BCP stands for the group's central entity, the Banque Centrale Populaire which also operates retail services in the region of Casablanca and El Jadida. The group also comprises eight regional entities known as Banques Populaires Régionales: these are, respectively, Centre-Sud (covering the Souss-Massa region), Fez-Meknes, Laayoune, Marrakesh-Beni Mellal, Nador-Al Hoceima, Oujda, Rabat-Kenitra, and Tangier-Tétouan.^[4]

As of 2024, BCP Group was Morocco's second-largest banking group, behind market leader Attijariwafa Bank and ahead of Bank of Africa.^[5] It has had the largest deposit base in the country for many years. Like its two main Moroccan peers, it has also expanded significantly into sub-Saharan Africa.^[6]

The starting point of BCP Group was a Royal Decree or dahir promulgated by the authorities of the French protectorate in Morocco on 25 May 1926 authorizing the formation of cooperative banks in the territory, inspired by the French legislation of 1917 that organized what later became France's Groupe Banque Populaire. A number of such local banks were founded between 1931 and 1952 but faced serious management challenges. On 2 February 1961, a new decree of the newly independent monarchy reorganized the network and established the BCP, a government agency, as its central entity. The group’s deposit base expanded rapidly in the following decade,^[8] and by 1974 it was the largest bank in Morocco by volume of deposits.

In 1972, BCP established its European subsidiary in Paris, branded Chaabi Bank.^[9] In 1990, it initiated an expansion into Africa following governmental agreements between Morocco and the Central African Republic (CAR) and Guinea. Thus the Banque Populaire Maroco-Centrafricaine (BPMC) was established in Bangui in July 1990 following a diplomatic protocol of 13 February 1989,^[10] and a similar establishment (BPMG) was made in Conakry.

The BCP was reorganized as a joint-stock company in 2000, and partly privatized in 2004 by listing on the Casablanca Stock Exchange.^[8] In 2010, the BCP absorbed the regional bank based in Casablanca, and in 2016 that in El Jadida. In May 2012, Paris-based Groupe BPCE became a minority shareholder with a 5 percent equity stake.^[11]

Also in 2012, the BCP Group expanded significantly further into sub-Saharan Africa by taking over the Atlantic Bank Group, with operations in Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.^[6]

By that time, the bank's market share of customer deposits in Morocco was 27.9 percent.^[12] This translated to customer deposits of 204.9 billion dirhams (1H2013). The number of employees in the bank at the end of 2012 was 11,878.

By 2014, the Moroccan state sold its residual ownership stake in BCP to the group's regional banks.^[11] In 2015 a restructuring raised the equity ownership of the BCP in the regional banks to majority stakes of 52 percent, the rest remaining owned by the cooperative clients.^[13] This has made the BCP increasingly resemble a commercial banking group as opposed to cooperative banking. The regional banks, in turn, collectively own a majority of shares in BCP.

In 2015, the BCP Group acquired the former operations of Banque Internationale pour l'Afrique Occidentale (BIAO) in Niger.^[14] In 2016, it established a branch in Guinea-Bissau,^[6] and later acquired further banking operations in Cameroon (Banque internationale du Cameroun pour l'épargne et le crédit [fr], BICEC), Republic of the Congo (Banque commerciale internationale [fr], BCI), Madagascar (Banque Malgache de l'Océan Indien, BMOI), and Mauritius.^[15]: 14

In March 2023, BCP entered into a long-term partnership with Mastercard to improve services in terms of digital solutions and payments.^[16]

As of end-2022, BCP owned between 51 and 52.5 percent of equity in each of the eight regional banks. Its other subsidiaries included Banque Atlantique in Benin (58.6 percent), Burkina Faso (48.8 percent), Côte d'Ivoire (79.4 percent), Mali (57.5 percent), Niger (63.9 percent), Senegal (79.8 percent), and Togo (67.9 percent); BICEC in Cameroon (78.4 percent), BPMC in the CAR (75 percent), BCI in the Republic of the Congo (100 percent), Chaabi Bank in France (100 percent), BPMG in Guinea (61.7 percent), BMOI in Madagascar (66.7 percent), and BCP Mauritius (100 percent).^[15]: 14

For 2023, net banking income grew by 10.6 per cent to MAD 22.9 billion. Consolidated deposits totalled MAD 372 billion and consolidated loans stood at MAD 319.4 billion.^[17]

• List of banks in Morocco

• Groupe Banque Populaire (in French)