HIBAPRESS – Casablanca
It seems that some practices within the BMCE Bank of Africa group are still stuck in a bygone administrative era, bearing no relation to the discourse of digitalization and modernization that banking institutions in Morocco are raising.
Instead of banks facilitating their services to their customers through advanced digital systems, a number of BMCE Bank customers find themselves forced to go on a long "dragging" journey just to obtain a simple document that requires only a button click.
In this context, a number of the bank's customers, in their communication with HIBAPRESS, confirmed that they were surprised by a nearly unified response from some bank branches when they requested their bank statements (Les relevés bancaires), where they were told literally: "Go to the city where your account is if you want it," a response that the affected parties considered incomprehensible in the age of digitalization and the immediate exchange of banking data between branches.
The affected customers are asking: Aren't all BMCE Bank branches affiliated with the same financial institution? And if so, what prevents a branch in a certain city from delivering an account statement to a bank customer, who is originally the account holder, instead of forcing him to travel to the city where he opened his account many years ago, and perhaps before he changed his place of residence or work?
The strangest thing, according to customer testimonials, is that it concerns a very ordinary document, which most Moroccan banks provide in a matter of seconds and from any branch, but some BMCE customers find themselves forced to travel hundreds of kilometers just to get a regular stamped paper.
This situation raises serious questions about the bank's ability to keep pace with the digital transformation that the banking sector boasts of. Is it reasonable that a modern banking system does not allow a branch to access a customer's account belonging to the same institution and provide them with a statement? Or is it just outdated administrative mentalities that still control some branches?
So what if a customer opened his account in Tangier and found himself today in Casablanca or even in Dakhla, and urgently needs a stamped account statement to complete an administrative procedure? Does he really have to book a plane ticket or spend hours traveling just to get a document that, in reality, only takes a few seconds within the bank's information system?
A number of the bank's customers are expressing their increasing dissatisfaction with these services, which they describe as outdated, confirming that such practices are pushing them to consider changing their banking institutions to other banks that provide more flexible services and respect the customer's time and circumstances.
In light of these increasing criticisms, the question remains: Does the BMCE Bank management not trust its branches spread across the national territory, to the extent that the account statement, which is a regular document for other banks, is considered a secret that should only be handed over by the branch where the customer opened his account? Or does the matter just need a simple decision that keeps pace with the times and replaces the "dragging" policy with a button click?
