In response to a deepening crisis surrounding bounced checks, the government has officially taken action. With nearly one million rejected checks recorded in 2024 alone—and tens of thousands of people ending up behind bars as a result—officials have approved Bill 71.24, a sweeping reform of the Commercial Code led by Justice Minister Abdellatif Ouahbi.
The newly adopted legislation, which was signed off by the Council of Government, aims to ease the legal handling of payment defaults while introducing non-criminal alternatives to prosecution. The goal is twofold: to relieve pressure on the judicial system and to restore public trust in checks as a legitimate means of payment, encouraging more amicable resolutions along the way.
Until now, writing a bad check was treated almost automatically as a criminal offense. That rigid approach generated more than 180,000 legal complaints between 2022 and June 2025, according to government figures. Over 77,000 of those resulted in criminal proceedings, and more than 58,000 people are still incarcerated today for issues related to bounced checks.
At the heart of the reform is a complete overhaul of Article 316 of the Commercial Code. The law eliminates the blanket 25% penalty that previously applied and replaces it with a significantly lower fee—just 2%—if the issuer settles the debt. In such cases, legal proceedings are immediately suspended. Another key change is the broad expansion of conciliation options, which are now allowed at any stage of the process, even after a conviction. A formal complaint withdrawal or the repayment of the original amount is now enough to bring proceedings to a halt.
Additional adjustments reinforce the reform’s conciliatory approach. For instance, prosecutors can now grant a 30-day grace period—renewable once with the recipient’s consent—for the check issuer to fund their account. Incarceration may also be swapped for judicial supervision in many cases. The law even introduces exceptions for disputes stemming from family-related issues, signaling a more nuanced, humane interpretation of the law.
The Justice Ministry describes this shift as a necessary response to the evolving landscape of financial transactions and a step toward a fairer justice system. Above all, the reform is intended to restore confidence in checks—an essential but long-stigmatized payment method—by replacing punishment with accountability and flexibility.
