Valuation
Collateral appraisal for Moroccan NPL pricing
The date, the basis and the valuer's mandate matter as much as the number.
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- Serenor Capital
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- 2 min read
The number at the top of an appraisal travels easily into a pricing committee. It belongs there only if one knows who wrote it, for what decision, on what date, and on what definition of value.
Five questions before using the figure
Who instructed the valuer, and for which decision. An origination appraisal reassured the original credit committee. It was not written for a judicial sale. Which definition: market value, contribution value, realisation value. Which date, and what has changed since in the neighbourhood or in the asset. Whether the asset visited is the one on the title. Whether the assumptions on occupation and area are still true.
If any one of those answers is missing, the number does not enter the base case. It can sit in an appendix as the seller's document. See collateral value is not recovery value.
Market and forced exit
Market value assumes a seller who can wait and a buyer who is not the only bidder at an auction. An NPL exit is closer to a constrained sale, with delay, cost and sometimes an occupied asset.
The gap between the two is not a national constant. A liquid flat in a deep neighbourhood and a raw plot on the edge do not have the same gap. Secured and unsecured books are separated in secured versus unsecured NPLs. That note does not hand out a single haircut.
Rank, cost, time
The appraisal, even when well read, is a gross figure. Useful rank, enforcement and repair costs come off, then the cash is delayed. An asset appraised at a high level, and charged beyond that level, contributes zero.
Delay is not copied from another file. It starts from the procedural stage actually reached. Mortgage enforcement timelines frame the question without turning it into a tariff.
A portfolio
On a book of several hundred assets, not everything is appraised to the same depth. Stratify: the lines that carry value are visited, the small lines are handled by an explicit and conservative rule, tested on a sample.
The rule is written in the pricing note. It is not a silent 30%. The same spirit as the loan tape: a field without a definition is not data.
In this series
- Collateral value is not recovery value
- NPL valuation in Morocco
- Pledging a business (fonds de commerce)
- Judicial auction price versus collateral value
This note is a method of reading a file or a published series. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it is not an opinion on a particular exposure. Serenor Capital does not buy claims for its own account, manage a fund, or carry on collection.
Sources and references
- Bank Al-Maghrib, Annual Report on Banking Supervision, financial year 2025 — PDF
- Bank Al-Maghrib, Circular No. 19/G/2002 of 23 December 2002 on the classification of claims and their provisioning, as amended — PDF
- Circular No. 1/W/2025, adopted on 5 December 2025, effective 1 January 2027. It does not restate the 2012–2025 figures discussed here.
- Serenor public series, banks, social basis — Morocco NPL Monitor and methodology
Frequently asked questions
- Is an appraisal less than twelve months old enough?
- Freshness helps. It does not remove the need to read the basis — market, occupied, vacant, forced sale — or to check that the asset appraised is the one that is registered.
- Should a single haircut, for example 30%, be applied?
- No. A house percentage on every appraisal replaces analysis with a habit. The discount depends on the asset, the rank, the costs and the time.
Evaluating an NPL Portfolio
Serenor Capital supports financial institutions and investors in the analysis and valuation of non-performing loan portfolios in Morocco.
Serenor Capital publishes research on non-performing loans, distressed-credit valuation and the development of Morocco’s secondary credit market.
This note is general commentary on method and market structure. It is not investment advice, legal advice, or a recommendation in relation to any portfolio, transaction or financial asset.