Casablanca Finance City (CFC) status: what is it and how do you obtain it in 2026?

CFC status was established by Law No. 44-10 of 2010, now repealed and replaced by Decree-Law No. 2-20-665 of 30 September 2020, ratified by Law No. 70-20. This decree-law, which is the current legal framework of the status, reorganized the eligible categories and added new activities (investment companies, collective investment undertakings (OPC), financial investment advisers, services related to crowdfunding, trading companies, intra-group technical service providers).

The 2020 reform abolished the distinction between local turnover and export turnover, in order to bring the regime into line with the requirements of the OECD and the European Union regarding preferential taxation.

Casablanca Finance City Authority (CFCA), formerly the Moroccan Financial Board, promotes the financial centre, reviews applications and grants the status.

To obtain CFC status, a company must:

• Be a company under Moroccan law registered in the Commercial Register and established in Casablanca
• Carry on an eligible activity within the meaning of Decree-Law No. 2-20-665
• Present a project with a regional or international focus, assessed by CFCA according to the category
• Have real substance: premises, qualified staff and actual operating expenses in Casablanca
• Comply with the rules on transparency and combating money laundering (Law No. 43-05 as amended by Law No. 12-18)

The granting of CFC status follows a formal procedure:

1. Pre-qualification with CFCA: presentation of the project, the business plan, the organization and the planned substance
2. Setting up the company: OMPIC negative certificate (232.76 MAD online, valid for 90 days), signed articles of association, filing with the registry of the Casablanca commercial court (about 1,200 MAD), tax identifiers (IF, ICE, TP) issued by the DGI, CNSS affiliation
3. Filing the application with CFCA: articles of association, Commercial Register extract, business plan, identity and background of the directors, proof of substance
4. Decision to grant by CFCA, notified to the company; the IS exemption runs from the first financial year in which the status is granted
5. Annual monitoring of compliance with commitments by CFCA, which may withdraw the status

For a financial company, the status does not exempt it from the approval of the supervisory authority (Bank Al-Maghrib, ACAPS or AMMC), presented in our guide to authorizations and approvals required to operate in Morocco. The review generally takes several months depending on how complete the file is.

The General Tax Code (Code Général des Impôts, CGI 2026) provides, for companies with CFC status:

The 20% rate results from the convergence of IS rates launched by the LF 2023: CFC companies, taxed at 15% after the exemption, moved to 16.25% in 2023, 17.5% in 2024 and 18.75% in 2025. Credit institutions and insurance and reinsurance companies are excluded from this regime and fall under the 40% rate specific to their sector. Companies holding the status before 2020 were able to opt, irrevocably, for this regime. The ordinary withholding tax is detailed in our guide to the taxation of dividends in Morocco.

CFC companies benefit from an adapted foreign exchange regime, specified by the General Instruction on Foreign Exchange Operations (Instruction Générale des Opérations de Change, IGOC) of the Office des Changes. It includes in particular:

• The possibility of holding foreign currency accounts for international transactions
• The transfer guarantee for dividends and sale proceeds for non-resident investors who financed their contribution in foreign currency, subject to the declarations to the Office des Changes
• Simplified settlements for transactions with foreign countries

The steps for a foreign currency contribution by a non-resident investor are presented in our guide to foreign investment in a Moroccan company.

In return, CFC companies must:

• Maintain the declared substance (staff, premises, expenses) throughout the term of the status
• Report annually on their activity to CFCA
• Keep accounts in accordance with Law 9-88, file their financial statements with the registry and keep their documents for 10 years
• Comply with international tax transparency rules (automatic exchange of information, BEPS standards)

Charikaty is a private Moroccan legal-tech platform that sets up your company 100% online. Law No. 88-17 on the electronic creation of businesses makes it possible to complete all the formation formalities remotely. Here is what you need before filing your application with CFCA: a company under Moroccan law registered in Casablanca, whose corporate purpose matches the eligible activity. With Charikaty, you do everything online, simply and quickly, in particular with our subsidiary formation service in Morocco: OMPIC negative certificate, drafting and electronic signature of the articles of association (Law 43-20), filing of the registration file with the Commercial Register, obtaining the IF, the ICE and the professional tax, then CNSS affiliation. For a company seeking CFC status, we adapt the corporate purpose to the target category and help you gather the documents for the application; the decision to grant the status rests with CFCA.

More than 250 companies have already been set up with Charikaty.