Morocco plans on opening up derivatives trading to finance infrastructure projects ahead of World Cup.

Morocco is gearing up to offer derivatives trading opportunities to institutional and retail investors for the first time. 

Nezha Hayat, chair of the Moroccan Capital Market Authority, told Bloomberg the change is the most substantial revamp of Morocco’s financial regulations in over three decades. 

Legislation is expected this year that will allow exchange-traded funds, foreign currency-denominated mutual funds and Sharia-compliant mutual funds to be issued. 

She said Morocco’s target is to increase the capital market’s contribution to the total financing of the economy from 10% to 25%. 

“We now need to focus on significantly broadening to retail investors to enable the market to play its full role,” she said in May.  

The market capitalization of the Casablanca stock exchange totals roughly $70 billion, according to its website. That makes it the second-largest in Africa after Johannesburg. 

But Hayat said only a “small fraction” of the 20 million bank account holders in Morocco have stock investments. Those with means tend to favor real estate over stocks.  

The push into derivatives trading comes as Morocco gears up to spend an estimated 20 billion dollars on infrastructure projects like high-speed rail and stadiums ahead of the FIFA World Cup in 2030 that Morocco is co-hosting.