Regulation
Assignment of mortgage rank in Morocco
Rank can be the asset, and it does not travel on its own.
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- Serenor Capital
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On many files the value is not the paper of the claim. It is the place in the sale waterfall of the asset. A transaction that moves the claim and leaves the rank, or the reverse, moves the value while face value stays the same.
Two rights
The claim is the right to a sum. The mortgage is the right to be paid in preference on the asset, at the rank of the registration. Structures exist in which the second is granted, assigned or postponed in favour of new financing, while the old claim remains.
For an NPL buyer the operational question is: after the planned deed, will I be registered at the rank the memorandum describes? If the answer is not in the draft deed and the registry extract, it is not in the model. See Draft Law 02-26.
What the draft law does not yet do
The draft sent to the General Secretariat of the Government is not a statute in force. Whatever its latest text says about the transfer of security does not apply to a sale signed today.
The framework used today remains ordinary law and, where the vehicle is an FPCT, Law 33-06. Choosing the vehicle changes how security is housed. That choice is a structuring decision, not a closing detail.
Effect on the waterfall
Rank yielded to a new senior lender leaves the old claim in second place, or unsecured in economic effect. Face value is unchanged. Economic value may have disappeared. That is the useful rank calculation, with one further fact: rank was negotiated, not merely inherited from origination.
The data room has to contain rank amendments, partial releases and postponement undertakings. A forgotten release is forgotten value.
The debtor
The debtor is not a silent third party in every structure. Depending on the transaction, notice to or consent from the debtor changes enforceability against them. The point is covered in debtor consent.
This note does not draft the clause. It says the price is conditional on the clause, and that the model needs a version in which rank does not transfer.
In this series
- Draft Law 02-26
- Debtor consent and assignment
- Default interest and economic value
- Granular and single-name NPL portfolios
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
- Does assignment of the claim always carry the mortgage?
- Not under a general formula this note would lay down. Whether accessories travel depends on the applicable law and the deed. It is a checkpoint of the transaction, with counsel, not a pre-ticked box.
- Does Draft Law 02-26 simplify the transfer of security?
- Its published design aims at a more direct transfer regime. It is not enacted. A portfolio is not priced as if it were.
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.