Servicing & Recovery
Limitation periods on Moroccan bank claims
A question for counsel, not a cell in the model.
- Author
- Serenor Capital
- Published
- Read
- 2 min read
An old portfolio can contain rights that can still be sued on and rights that cannot. Telling them apart is legal work on documents. It is not a formula applied to the date of classification.
What the tape does not say
The prudential classification date is a risk-management date. The date on which a right of action runs, is interrupted or is lost is a legal date. The two sometimes coincide. Assuming they do across a whole vintage is a way to be wrong at scale.
The documents that matter are the contract, acknowledgements, payment histories, demands, filings and judgments. Their absence from the data room is a pricing risk, not a cell to fill in later. See the data room checklist.
How price carries the uncertainty
Until counsel has characterised a sample of the old files, the base case should not give them judicial cash. They can be set to zero outside a residual settlement path, or left outside the perimeter being sold.
Describing that zero as 'the claim is time-barred' would be a legal conclusion this note does not draw. It is a modelling convention, written as one, pending the legal view. The downside case is the right place.
Acts that change the analysis
A part payment, an acknowledgement, a proceeding under way can change the analysis. An 'old' file with a recent judgment is not in the same position as a file never filed in ten years. A tape that does not separate those states mixes assets and archives.
Enforcement writing describes paths. It does not fix a single period. Neither does this note. See mortgage enforcement timelines.
Serenor's role
The analysis flags the files where the question is material to price and assembles the documents. It does not sign an opinion on limitation. That opinion belongs to the seller's or the buyer's counsel.
An analytical mandate that promises a 'percentage of time-barred files' without a legal review promises a figure the method cannot produce.
In this series
- Investing in Moroccan NPLs
- NPL data room
- Judicial auction price versus collateral value
- Default interest and economic 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
- What is the limitation period of a Moroccan bank loan?
- There is not a single period to state here. It depends on the instrument, the parties and interrupting acts. Serenor Capital is not a law firm. The answer is taken from counsel on the file.
- Does the tape's default date start the clock?
- Not automatically. Acknowledgements, part payments, procedural acts and judgments can interrupt or move the starting point. Without those documents, there is nothing to calculate.
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.