Irregular claims are wider than NPLs

Two lines can sit near each other in a report and not measure the same thing. 'Irregular claims' and 'non-performing claims' are interchangeable only when the table says so. Otherwise, quoting one for the other moves the perimeter without the reader seeing it.

Read the heading, not the neighbourhood

In a supervision report, a paragraph may discuss irregular claims — often a set that includes watched or sensitive exposures — and, later, non-performing claims in the sense of the pre-doubtful, doubtful and compromised grid. The second stock is a subset or a neighbouring concept according to the vintage of the text. It is not guessed.

The practice here is to keep a figure only when the line, the page, the basis and the unit are recorded. That is how the monitor series was built.

Why the confusion is expensive

An investor who compares '8% irregular' in Morocco with a European NPL ratio may be comparing a wider numerator with a narrower one. A definition gap disguises itself as an asset-quality gap.

The same risk exists internally, when a committee pack places a monthly monetary chart beside the annual supervision ratio. Both documents are official. They are not the same series. See solo and consolidated figures.

What to do in a note

Name the document, the year, the page and the exact label. If the label is not non-performing claims of banks on a social basis, do not present it as the monitor's figure.

When a speech or a wire uses one percentage and no basis, the honest response is that the percentage is not yet identifiable. A 'nearby' figure in the report is not chosen to make it fit.

Link to classification

The grid that matters for a file remains Circular 19/G/2002 for the years published so far, then the text in force from 2027. 'Irregular' in a cyclical commentary is not a fourth category of that grid.

The three categories are set out via the monitor methodology.

In this series

• Morocco NPL market
• Morocco NPL Monitor
• NPL classification contagion inside a group
• First-ranking mortgages and useful rank

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