What is the most meaningful indicator of a bank’s profitability? Without hesitation, it is ROE (Return on Equity), for one simple reason: a bank is not an industrial company. It does not produce using machines or inventories. It generates value through money, namely the capital invested by its shareholders. ROE measures exactly how much profit a bank generates for every dinar of capital entrusted to it. It reflects the shareholder’s perspective, which remains the most important lens in evaluating a banking institution.
ROA (Return on Assets) is useful, but it is distorted by the size of the balance sheet. A bank that expands its balance sheet through low-risk interbank placements, such as ABC Tunisia with its 1.1 billion dinars invested in the interbank market, will mechanically post a lower ROA than a bank that issues fewer loans while maintaining a more compact balance sheet. This is not a sign of poor profitability, but rather of a different business model.
Net profit in absolute terms reflects size, not efficiency. The cost-to-income ratio measures operational efficiency, not final profitability. A bank may post an excellent efficiency ratio yet still record a mediocre ROE if its risk costs are high or if it is undercapitalized.
ROE brings all these elements together. It incorporates net margins, cost efficiency, risk management, and leverage effects. This is why analysts and investors consistently place it at the top of their evaluation criteria for banks.
Ten banks, one verdict
The profitability ranking of Tunisian credit institutions for the 2025 financial year names Attijari Bank Tunisia as the most profitable bank in the sector, with a return on equity (ROE) of 20.5%.
This ratio is the benchmark in banking analysis because it measures how much net profit each dinar invested by shareholders generates. It alone summarizes cost control, risk management, and business model efficiency.
Behind Attijari, BIAT confirms its status as the country’s leading bank in absolute terms, posting 385 million dinars in net profit, but ranks second in ROE at 16.8%.
Amen Bank completes the podium with 14.6%. At the other end of the spectrum, Arab Tunisian Bank (ATB) closed the year with a net loss, making it the only institution in the panel in negative territory.
Between these two extremes, the other eight banks depict a generally solid sector, though marked by deep disparities between well-managed private banks and public institutions still struggling to achieve sustainable profitability.
Attijari Bank Tunisia dominates the sector in terms of ROE with 20.5%, confirming the effectiveness of its business model. However, Banque de Tunisie (BT) wins the crown for pure efficiency, with a cost-to-income ratio of 30.2% and an ROA of 2.1%, unmatched in the Tunisian banking landscape.
BIAT remains the heavyweight in absolute terms, with 385 million dinars in net profit, representing 22% of the sector’s total earnings, though the scale of its balance sheet dilutes its relative ratios.
Amen Bank consolidated its third-place ranking with 248.7 million dinars in individual profit, up 8.1%.
Among public banks, Banque Nationale Agricole (BNA) crossed the symbolic threshold of one billion dinars in net banking income and posted a record profit of 274.5 million dinars.
Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB) continued its recovery, though its net profit fell 19% to 65.9 million dinars and its ROE dropped to 7.7%. BH Bank is operating in a more challenging environment, facing pressure on operational profitability.
Two institutions, Arab Tunisian Bank and Bank of Tunisia and Emirates (BTE), ended the year with net losses.
ATB in particular recorded a 5.48% decline in net banking income and a 13% increase in operating expenses, a structurally difficult combination to sustain.
Three readings for three different perspectives
The first bubble chart (ROE vs ROA) immediately places Attijari Bank Tunisia as the ROE champion and Banque de Tunisie as the ROA champion. The size of the bubbles reflects absolute net profit, making it clear that BIAT generates the largest overall profit despite a lower ROE than Attijari.
The second chart (net profit vs cost-to-income ratio) highlights the sector’s real paradox. Banque de Tunisie stands alone in the ideal upper-left corner, combining high profits with the lowest costs.
BIAT and Banque Nationale Agricole generate substantial profits in absolute value but with heavier cost structures. Arab Tunisian Bank is isolated in the bottom-right corner, the worst of both worlds.
The third chart presents a pure ROE ranking, sorted from best to worst, with color distinctions between private banks, public banks, and banks under pressure.
The figures marked with an asterisk (BNA ROE, BH Bank ROA, Attijari ROA) are estimates based on available information and will need to be confirmed once full balance sheets are published.
In the context of this ranking, “under pressure” refers to banks combining at least two of the following warning signs: negative or very weak net profit, a high cost-to-income ratio indicating that expenses absorb most revenues, an ROE in negative territory or far below the sector average, and a deteriorating trend over one or two consecutive financial years.
For Arab Tunisian Bank specifically, the signal is clear: negative net profit, a cost-to-income ratio of 72.2%, and negative ROE. It is a loss-making bank, not merely a bank under pressure.
For BH Bank, the situation is different: the bank is not loss-making, but its ROA of 0.26% and ROE of 3.5% are well below the sector average, combined with a rigid cost structure. It is a weakened bank, though not in an open crisis.
