The release of Amen Bank’s 2025 financial statements confirms a key trend seen among Tunisia’s leading banks: sustained profitability driven by a deep transformation in the revenue mix.
As an observer of the sector, four main pillars define the institution’s current trajectory:
Structural shift toward the investment portfolio
A major milestone has been reached. Income from the investment portfolio climbed to 249.4 million dinars in 2025, now representing 42% of gross operating income (GOP), compared to just 9% in 2015.
This shift reflects adaptation to market conditions. Like most of the sector, Amen Bank is relying on government securities to offset the stagnation of traditional lending. However, with interest income stabilizing at around 25% of GOP, the long-term balance of the business model remains a key question. Net interest income fell in 2025 to its lowest level since 2017 (145.1 million dinars), confirming a structural erosion of core banking profitability.
This investment-driven strategy, focused on asset security, could eventually raise concerns about market share in productive lending if the real economy is no longer the main driver of revenue growth.
Strong profitability above 15%
Despite pressure on intermediation margins, the bank posted a return on equity (ROE) of 15.2% in 2025. Net profit reached a record 248.7 million dinars, up 11.2% year-on-year.
This performance reflects efficient balance sheet management, with equity rising to 1.64 billion dinars and a successful diversification of revenue streams, helping absorb higher operating costs.
Return on assets (ROA) remained stable at 2.0%, despite total assets exceeding 12.5 billion dinars. This stability highlights an operational model increasingly driven by portfolio income rather than traditional lending cycles. The bank has effectively shifted toward lower-risk sovereign investments offering an attractive risk-return profile under current prudential rules.
Strong control of cost of risk
A key driver in 2025 was risk management. Cost of risk declined to 105 basis points, down from 181 bps in 2022, limiting provisioning charges to 78 million dinars (vs. 118 million in 2022).
Asset quality continued to improve, with the non-performing loans (NPL) ratio falling to 9.6%, below the symbolic 10% threshold, reflecting more disciplined risk selection and stable recovery efforts.
Resilient funding and liquidity structure
Customer deposits reached 8.7 billion dinars, up 8.8% year-on-year, confirming strong funding capacity.
The equity-to-assets ratio improved to 13.6%, providing a solid buffer.
Reliance on the Central Bank remains contained at 5.7% of total liabilities, ensuring refinancing autonomy in a tight liquidity environment.
Outlook
The key challenge ahead will be sustaining operational efficiency (cost-to-income ratio of 41.1%) while managing a potential shift back toward credit intermediation. The future balance will depend on the bank’s ability to preserve its lending DNA amid the growing dominance of financial investment activities.
