What is the Commercial Register in Morocco and what is it used for in 2026?

Under Article 27 of the Commercial Code, the Commercial Register consists of local registers, kept by the registry office (secrétariat-greffe) of the competent court (Art. 28), and a central register kept by OMPIC (Art. 31). Article 37 sets out the principle:

The Commercial Register is:

• Public: anyone can obtain a certified extract or a certificate of non-registration (Art. 29)
• Mandatory: subject to a fine (Art. 62)
• Decentralized: each registry keeps the register for its jurisdiction
• Centralized: OMPIC consolidates all local entries
• Enforceable: only facts and deeds duly entered are enforceable against third parties (Art. 61)

✅ Legal publication: making known the identity and the directors of businesses ✅ Name protection: a registered company name (dénomination) can no longer be assigned to another business ✅ Evidence: the registered person is presumed to be a trader (Art. 58) ✅ Traceability: tracking changes of manager, registered office, capital or activity ✅ Identification: the RC number appears, together with the ICE and the IF, on the business's documents

Under Article 37 of the Commercial Code:

Traders who are natural persons, Moroccan or foreign, habitually carrying on a commercial activity. Industrial or craft activity is among the commercial activities (Art. 6); a craftsperson is therefore in principle concerned, unless they fall under the auto-entrepreneur (self-employed status) regime.

Commercial companies:

• SARL / SARL AU, SNC and limited partnerships (sociétés en commandite) (Law 5-96)
• SA (Law 17-95)
• SAS (Law 5-96 as amended and supplemented by Law 19-20)

Others: branches and agencies of Moroccan or foreign businesses (in the RC of the place where the branch is located), economic interest groupings (groupements d'intérêt économique) (Law 13-97).

❌ Liberal professions (lawyers, doctors, architects): civil activities, registration with their professional body and with the DGI ❌ Auto-entrepreneurs (Law 114-13): exempt, registered in the national auto-entrepreneur register ❌ Cooperatives: specific register (Law 112-12) ❌ Associations: Dahir of 15 November 1958

• Deadline: 3 months from the opening of the establishment (natural person), the incorporation (company) or the creation (branch) (Art. 75)
• Failure to register: fine of 1,000 to 5,000 MAD if the formal notice remains without effect for one month (Art. 62), then two months to regularize (Art. 63)
• Knowingly inaccurate declaration: one month to one year of imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 to 50,000 MAD, or one of these penalties (Art. 64)

The rules for keeping the register are laid down by Decree No. 2-96-906 of 18 January 1997; the commercial courts, by Law No. 53-95.

A company registers with the registry with jurisdiction over its registered office (siège social). The exact jurisdiction of each court is set by decree; if in doubt, Charikaty identifies the competent registry. Special cases are detailed in where to register a company in Morocco.

Before submitting a file, make sure that:

• Your OMPIC negative certificate (required by Art. 74) is valid: you can register as soon as it is issued, as the company name must be entered in the RC within its 90 days of validity, failing which a new application is required
• Your company name appears exactly as on the certificate; a difference may lead to a correction or a refusal
• Your registered office is evidenced (lease, title deed or business domiciliation contract [contrat de domiciliation], Art. 544-1 et seq.)
• Your articles of association (statuts) are signed and registered with the DGI within 30 days (Art. 128 CGI)
• The capital is deposited in a blocked account (compte bloqué) if the SARL has more than 100,000 MAD of capital, and always for an SA

The file includes in particular the negative certificate, the signed and registered articles of association, the identity documents of the partners and directors, the proof of registered office, the business tax certificate (Art. 76) and the registration application setting out the particulars of Art. 45, plus documents specific to certain situations: certificate of blocked funds (SARL with capital above 100,000 MAD, and SA), contributions auditor's (commissaire aux apports) report (contributions in kind, always in an SA) and minutes (PV) of the constituent meeting (SA). The full list, by company form and partner profile, is set out in the documents required to register a company in Morocco.

With Charikaty, you send these documents online and we take care of the rest. MRE or foreign partners sign electronically from abroad, without a legalized power of attorney.

The file is submitted electronically (Law 88-17), without travel and accessible to MRE, or at the registry counter, with legalized signatures and travel. The timeframe for each method and each step is detailed in how long it takes to register a company in Morocco.

The registry filing and registration fees are about 1,200 MAD, plus copies and extracts.

💡 Tip: the electronic route relies on the advanced electronic signature (Law 43-20), the recommended level for company deeds.

The registrar checks the validity of the negative certificate, the compliance of the company name, the completeness of the documents, the signature of the articles of association by all partners and the consistency of the information.

Possible outcome:

• ✅ Acceptance: registration and assignment of the RC number
• ⚠️ Request for additional information: missing document or inconsistency
• ❌ Refusal: can be challenged before the president of the court (Art. 78)

Within the month following registration, a notice of incorporation is published in a legal announcements newspaper (JAL) and in the Official Bulletin (Law 5-96, Art. 96; Law 17-95, Art. 30 et seq.). Both publications are required; their total cost ranges from a few hundred to about 1,500 MAD depending on the length of the notice. Their process is detailed in legal publication in the JAL and the Official Bulletin.

• The Commercial Register extract with your RC number
• The tax identification number (IF) and the business tax, issued by the DGI
• The ICE (Common Company Identifier, Identifiant Commun de l'Entreprise, 15 digits), assigned by the DGI
• The company's CNSS affiliation, obtained at the time of incorporation (the declaration of employees becomes mandatory from the first hire)

These documents are used to open a business account or release the capital, issue compliant invoices, sign contracts and carry out your administrative procedures. The assignment of the ICE is detailed in the Common Company Identifier (ICE) in Morocco.

The RC number is a serial number assigned by the local registry, always cited with the city of the court:

RC Casablanca No. 123456

• Unique within each local register
• Stable in the event of changes (manager, capital, corporate purpose)
• Exception: a transfer of the registered office to the jurisdiction of another court entails a new registration, and therefore a new number
• To be stated on invoices and business documents, together with the ICE and the IF

The extract sets out the business's entries and its RC number. Anyone can obtain it from the registry as a certified extract, or request a certificate of non-registration (Art. 29); OMPIC also makes it possible to consult certain information from the central register online.

For a company, the declaration includes in particular (Art. 45 and 46):

✅ Identity: company name, legal form, registration number and date ✅ Registered office: address, branches and establishments ✅ Management: managers, directors, persons authorized to bind the company ✅ Activity: corporate purpose and activity actually carried on ✅ Capital: amount, partners (SARL and partnerships), date and number of the filing of the articles of association

To this are added the patents and trademarks used and court decisions on dissolution, nullity or relating to the business's difficulties. For a trader who is a natural person, see Article 42.

This information is accessible to everyone by extract. Certain particulars are omitted from extracts, such as a cancelled pledge (nantissement) (Art. 77).

Any change to a registered fact gives rise to an amending entry (inscription modificative) (Art. 50), applied for within the month following the deed (Art. 75):

1. Decision of the partners (SARL: 3/4 of the shares, Art. 75 Law 5-96; SA: extraordinary general meeting [AGE]; SAS: according to the articles of association)
2. Registration of the minutes with the DGI
3. Filing of the amending declaration with the registry
4. Publication in the JAL and in the Official Bulletin
5. Declaration to the DGI within 30 days (Art. 149 CGI) and CNSS update

Costs: registry fees and publication fees. With Charikaty, the drafting of the deeds, the electronic signature, the filing with the registry and the legal publications are done online.

Deregistration (radiation) occurs in the event of cessation of activity, death of the trader or dissolution (Art. 51):

❌ Early dissolution: 3/4 of the shares in an SARL, 2/3 of the votes at the AGE of an SA ❌ Judicial liquidation closed ❌ Expiry of the term set in the articles of association ❌ Merger or absorption ❌ Deregistration ex officio in the cases provided for by the Commercial Code

Procedure: dissolution decision and appointment of a liquidator, publication and entry in the RC, liquidation, approval of the closing accounts, application for deregistration at the registry, then declaration of cessation to the DGI within 45 days (Art. 150 CGI) and CNSS deregistration.