Since its establishment, the AMMC has undergone several milestones in the process of its development both in terms of its organization and operation and in terms of its missions. The main objective is to provide the market authority with necessary powers along with sufficient means of action to ensure effective supervision of both markets and professionals and more generally sustain the market development process.
Key dates marking the history of the Authority:
1993:
A turning point was the year which marked the start up of the financial markets modernization process in Morocco. It enacts the promulgation of a series of founding laws to guarantee a modern organization of the markets and to announce the creation of new institutions. It is in this context that the market authority, named then CDVM, the Stock Exchange managing company, the brokerage firms and UCITS have been created.
1994:
The first meeting of the Capital Market Authority’s Board of Directors.
1996:
The establishment of the central depository system and the introduction of securities book- entry system;
2004:
The empowerment of the capital market authority:
- Enlargement of the membership of the Board of Directors while maintaining the balance between government representatives and expert members;
- Establishment of the Examination Joint Committee by the Authority;
- Extending the Authority’ control power to all market participants;
- Possibility of issuing circulars applicable to all operators subject to the control of the Authority;
- Enlargement of the Authority’s investigative powers, by recognizing audition, injunction, search and seizure powers. Some of these powers are exercised under the supervision of judicial authorities;
- Recognition of the possibility of concluding bilateral or multilateral agreements with foreign authorities to exchange information and conduct investigations upon request of these authorities, subject to reciprocity.
2007:
The Authority was approved as a signatory of the Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding / MMOU of the IOSCO. As a matter of fact, Morocco has become the 44th international signatory and the third African one. This signature is an acknowledgement of the conformity of the Authority and the governing laws of the Moroccan capital markets with the international financial regulation standards.
2008:
- The authority was elected as member of the IOSCO Executive Committee, which is the Organization's highest decision-making body.
- The Authority adopted its General Regulations specifying in particular the ethical rules applicable to its board of directors and staff, the procedures for preparing circulars and consulting professionals, the functioning of the examination Joint Committee, the contradictory procedure and the penalties range applied to professionals under its control.
2009:
- The Authority has adopted a new organizational structure in line with developments in international standards of financial markets supervision. This new organization provides new teams dedicated to new activities, namely public education activity and the empowerment of people operating within market participants.
- In its ongoing search for efficiency, the authority has adopted since March 2009, a quality management system that obtained the IS0 9001: 2008v for regulatory activities.
2010:
- The Authority has been very active in international forums and has participated in several world events so as to promote regional Moroccan financial center to raise the functioning standards of the capital market to meet the highest international standards and to reiterate its commitment to international cooperation.
- Execution of the first follow-up audit of the management system of the Authority quality by an external audit office, a year after obtaining the ISO 9001 certification.
- In the area of information systems, two developmental projects have been completed: Development of a strategic plan of the Authority information system and consolidation of infrastructure and IT security.
2011:
- The Authority has completed its circulars consolidation project, providing thereby market participants with a single document containing all the rules governing the activities under the authority control.
- The overhaul of the website and its availability in three languages helps to further clarify to investors the overall approach to regulation.
2012:
- The Authority has been appointed as the new member of the IOSCO standing committees. These committees consist mainly of authorities representing the most developed markets and are dedicated to developing standards and recommendations on regulation of the securities markets and derivatives markets.
2013:
- Publication in the Official Bulletin of April 11th, 2013, of Law No. 43-12, which strengthens the independence and autonomy of the regulatory authority and grants it great powers covering all the capital market participants. It also provides the CDVM transition process to the AMMC and contains general provisions on the establishment of the regulatory authority.
- Publication in the Official Bulletin of January 24th, 2013, of Law No. 44-12 on the Public offerings dissociated from the proper law of the regulator. The provisions governing the public offerings are now the subject of an appropriate Law covering as well transactions not constituting public offerings and determining the qualified investors. By expanding the list of financial instruments, subject to the public offering, the new Law extends the notion of persons making public offerings to institutions making public offerings. The new Law on public offerings has introduced the following major steps:
- Defining advertising, canvassing and financial intermediaries’ concepts.
- Determining the private investment frame by introducing conditions allowing the monitoring of investments by the Authority, empowering more stakeholders (issuers and investors) while increasing the transparency of the operation.
- Internationally, the Authority confirmed its presence in the various international bodies regulating the financial markets and actively participated in various debates and discussions related to its field of action. It has also signed three agreements with the regulatory authorities of Central Africa, West Africa and Luxembourg Financial Sector Supervisory Commission and a memorandum of understanding with all European regulators as part of the AIFM directive on alternative investment fund managers.
2014:
Publication in the Official Bulletin of June 9th, 2014, of Law No. 42-12 on the futures market which determines and defines:
- Financial instruments that can be traded on the futures market
- Market institutions that will be responsible for managing this market
- The operators of the futures market and its operating rules
- The market authorities who will control the institutions and futures market operators
2015:
Successful rollout of SESAM platform across all stakeholders and market businesses. The reporting and authorization requests from stakeholders are now processed by the Authority exclusively via this platform, which allowed improving the processing deadline through process optimization and automation of consistency and completeness checks.
2016:
His Majesty King Mohamed VI, May God Assist Him, appointed on February 6th, 2016, Ms. Nezha Hayat as Chairperson and CEO of the AMMC.