If the bank has granted an overdraft, it may reduce it or terminate it only under the conditions of form and notice set out in the chapter governing the opening of credit.
Commercial Code
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When a claim entered in an account results from the transmission to the bank of a negotiable instrument, the entry is presumed to be made only subject to collection of the instrument from the principal debtor. Consequently, if the instrument is not paid at maturity, the bank has the option: - to pursue recovery of the instrument…
The current account is terminated by the will of either party, without notice where the initiative for termination was taken by the client, subject to the notice provided for in the chapter governing the opening of credit where the bank has taken the initiative for termination. The account is also closed by the death, incapacity, judicial recovery or judicial liquidation of the client.
Closure opens a liquidation period at the end of which the final balance is established.
During the liquidation period, claims arising from transactions in progress on the day of closure are entered in the account. Their entry extinguishes them only to the extent that they are set off against the provisional balance existing on the day of closure, as possibly modified since. Section I: The Term Account
The term account is renewed at maturity only at the express request of the client and subject to the bank's agreement.
Interest stipulated in favor of the client is paid only at maturity.
The account may be terminated before maturity by the client with the bank's agreement. This early termination entails application of the penalties stipulated at the opening of the account. Chapter II: Deposit of Funds
The contract for the deposit of funds is the contract by which a person deposits funds with a banking establishment, whatever the deposit process, and confers on it the right to dispose of them for its own account, subject to restitution under the conditions provided for in the contract.
The depositary is not released from its obligation to return if, except in the case of seizure, it pays on an order not signed by the depositor or his agent. It is not released from its obligation to return in the event that it should lose the deposited funds as a result of an event of force majeure.
The deposit of securities concerns marketable securities and other negotiable securities which remain governed by the provisions of Law No. 35-94 relating to certain negotiable debt securities, promulgated by dahir No. 1-95-3 of 24 chaabane 1415 (26 January 1995).
Unless expressly stipulated otherwise, the banking establishment may use the deposited securities and exercise the prerogatives attached thereto only for the exclusive account of the depositor.
The banking establishment must ensure safekeeping of the securities and exercise with respect thereto the care which, under ordinary law, is required of a paid depositary. It may release them only on the written instructions of the depositor.
Unless stipulated otherwise, the banking establishment must collect the amount of interest, dividends, capital repayments, amortizations and, generally, all sums to which the deposited securities entitle, as soon as they become due. The sums collected must be made available to the depositor, in particular by entry in his current…
Operations giving rise to an option to be exercised by the owner of the securities are brought to the knowledge of the depositor. In case of urgency and risk of loss of rights, notice by the banking establishment is given by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt. In all these cases, correspondence costs are borne by t…
The banking establishment is required to return the securities at the depositor's request within the time limits imposed by the conditions of safekeeping. Return is made in principle at the place where the deposit was made; it must concern the very securities that were deposited, unless return by equivalent has been stipulated b…
Return must be made only to the depositor or to persons whom he has designated. In the event of death, the provisions of Article 800 of the Code of Obligations and Contracts apply, even if the securities show that they are the property of third parties.
Any claim concerning deposited securities must be brought to the knowledge of the depositor by the banking establishment. It shall only prevent restitution of the disputed securities following a court decision. Chapter IV: The transfer
The transfer is the banking operation by which the account of a depositor is, on the written order of the latter, debited for an amount intended to be credited to another account. This operation makes it possible: 1) to carry out transfers of funds between two separate persons having their accounts with the same banking establis…
The transfer order is validly given either for sums already entered in the account of the order giver, or for sums to be entered therein within a period previously agreed with the banking establishment.
The beneficiary of a transfer becomes owner of the sum to be transferred at the moment when the banking establishment debits the account of the order giver. The transfer order may be revoked until that moment.
The claim for the settlement of which a transfer is established subsists with all its securities and accessories until the moment when the beneficiary's account is effectively credited with the amount of this transfer.
The bank of the order giver is liable for the faults of the banks which it substitutes for the execution of the transfer, whether it chose them or not, without prejudice to its recourse against them. Chapter V: The opening of credit
The opening of credit is the undertaking of the bank to make means of payment available to the beneficiary or to third parties designated by it, up to a certain sum of money. An occasional debit balance does not entail an opening of credit.
The opening of credit is granted for a limited duration, renewable or not, or for an unlimited duration. The opening of credit for an unlimited duration, express or tacit, may only be terminated or reduced by written notification and upon expiry of a period fixed at the time of the opening of credit; this period may not be less…
The discount is the agreement by which the banking establishment undertakes to pay in advance to the holder the amount of commercial bills or other negotiable instruments at a determined maturity which this holder assigns to it, subject to reimbursing the amount thereof in the absence of payment by the principal obligor. The operation entails, in favour of the banking establishment, the deduction of interest and the collection of commission.
In the case of an express agreement, the parties may subject the payment of the sums owed to the endorser to the fulfilment of one or more suspensive conditions. In this case, the interest rate may be variable.
The banking establishment has, vis-à-vis the principal debtors of the instruments, the beneficiary of the discount and the other co-obligors, all the rights attached to the instruments it has discounted. It also has, with regard to the beneficiary of the discount, a separate right to reimbursement of the sums made available to the latter, increased by interest and commissions. Chapter VII: The assignment of professional claims
Any natural person, in the exercise of his professional activity, or any legal person, under private or public law, may assign, by the mere delivery of a schedule to a banking establishment, any claim held against a third party, a natural person in the exercise of his professional activity, or a legal person under private or pub…
By derogation from Articles 190 and 192 of the dahir forming the Code of Obligations and Contracts, any claim is assignable, even one resulting from a future act and whose amount and exigibility are not yet determined.
The schedule is signed by the assignor. It is dated by the assignee. It contains the following particulars: 1) the designation 'act of assignment of professional claims'; 2) the mention that the act is subject to the provisions of this chapter; 3) the name or designation of the beneficiary banking establishment; 4) the list of t…
The assignment transfers to the assignee the security interests securing the claim. The assignor is jointly and severally liable for payment of the assigned claim.
The schedule may be drawn to order. It is then transferable only to another banking institution.
The assignment takes effect between the parties and becomes enforceable against third parties on the date stated on the schedule. From that date, the assignor may not, without the assignee's consent, modify the scope of the rights attached to the claims listed in the schedule.
The assignee may at any time prohibit the debtor of the assigned claim from paying to the assignor. The debtor is then validly discharged only by payment to the assignee.
At the assignee's request, the debtor may undertake to pay it directly; this undertaking is evidenced, on pain of nullity, by a written document entitled 'act of acceptance of the assignment of a professional claim'. In that case, the debtor may not raise against the assignee defences based on its personal relations with the ass…
All securities, whatever their form, may be pledged, and such pledge is subject to the rules governing pledges, subject to the provisions below.
A pledge over securities may be created to secure performance of any obligation, even where, in the case of sums of money, the amount of the sum due is not determined. It may also be created to secure performance of obligations which are merely contingent at the time the pledge is created.
The pledgee already holding the pledged securities on another basis is deemed to be placed in possession as pledgee from the conclusion of the contract. If the securities pledged are in the hands of a third party that already holds them on another basis, the pledgee is deemed to be in possession only from the moment when that th…
If the grantor of the pledge is not personally bound by the secured obligation, he is liable only as a real surety.
As against the pledgee, the third party agreed as pledge holder is deemed to have waived any right of retention in its favour, for all prior causes, unless it expressly reserved that right when it accepted its mission.
The pledgee's priority right subsists as of its date, both between the parties and as against third parties, over the proceeds, sums repaid or replacement securities for the securities pledged.
Any failure by the grantor of the pledge to perform its obligations renders the secured claim immediately due and payable, unless new real security at least equivalent is provided as soon as possible in replacement of the security that has disappeared or been impaired.
The grantor of the pledge or the pledgee who, without the owner's consent, pledges securities which he knows belong to another, or who, by any means, maliciously opposes the exercise of the rights of third-party pledge holders or the rights of the pledgee, is punished by imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and by a fine of 2.000 to 10.000 dirhams. Book V: Difficulties of the Enterprise
The enterprise is required to proceed itself, through the internal prevention of difficulties, to recovery enabling the continuity of operations. Failing that, the president of the court intervenes through external prevention. The treatment of the enterprise occurs through judicial reorganization by the implementation of a conti…
The statutory auditor, if one exists, or any shareholder of the company shall inform the head of the enterprise of facts likely to compromise the continuity of operations, within 8 days of the discovery of the facts and by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, inviting him to remedy the situation. In the absence of…
In the absence of a deliberation by the general meeting on this subject, or if it has been established that, despite the decisions taken by that meeting, the continuity of operations remains compromised, the president of the court shall be informed thereof by the statutory auditor or by the head of the enterprise. Chapter II: External Prevention, Amicable Settlement
The president of the court shall summon the head of the enterprise in the case provided for in article 547, or where it follows from any act, document or proceeding that a commercial company, or an individual commercial or artisanal enterprise, is experiencing difficulties likely to compromise the continuity of operations, so th…
If it appears that the difficulties of the enterprise are likely to be resolved through the intervention of a third party capable of reducing any possible objections from the enterprise's usual partners, the president of the court shall appoint that third party as special representative; he shall assign him a mission and a time limit for carrying it out.
The amicable settlement procedure shall be open to any commercial or artisanal enterprise which, without being in cessation of payments, experiences a legal, economic or financial difficulty or needs that cannot be covered by financing suited to the enterprise's possibilities. The president of the court shall be seised by a peti…