STB (Société Tunisienne de Banque), a 65-year-old bank, has lived through all the country’s political and economic experiences. Nevertheless, it remains the pillar of the economy and of public and private financing.
At the end of March 2025, Société Tunisienne de Banque’s business and performance indicators were quite satisfactory, despite a difficult year marked by the economic recession and the demonization of banks, especially public banks, which had an impact on banks’ outstanding loans and net banking income.
– At the end of March, customer deposits increased by 1,174.9 MTD (millions of Tunisian dinars), or 11.37%, to 11,510.4 MTD.
Firstly, sight deposits, which will increase by 322.9 MTD, or +8.42%, to 4,155.9 MTD, representing 36.11% of total deposits at end-March 2025, compared to 3,833 MTD at end-March 2024.
This was followed by savings deposits, which increased by 355.7 MTD, or 8.19%, to 4,696.8 MDT, or a share of 40.80%, compared to 4,341 MDT a year earlier.
Time deposits also increased by 402.7 MTD or +21.37% to 2,286.7 MTD, corresponding to a share of 19.87% at the end of March 2025 (1,884.0 MTD in March 2024).
As for debt, it amounted to 571.9 MTD at the end of March 2025, down 77.0 MTD or 11.87% from its level at the end of March 2024 (648.8 MTD).
Bonds and private placements, on the other hand, fell by 54.3 MTD or -17.54%. Special funds also fell by 22.7 MTD or -6.68%.
A bank that continues to lend
Net loans to customers (excluding provisions for the first quarter of 2025) decreased by 893.3 million dinars or 8.49% to 9,628.4 million dinars at the end of the first quarter of 2025, compared to 10,521.7 million dinars a year earlier.
The commercial securities portfolio amounted to 427.3 million dinars, down by 9.1 million dinars or 2.09% compared to the level at the end of March 2024 (436.4 million dinars).
The portfolio of investment securities increased by 1,356.1 million dinars or 54.99% to 3,822.3 million dinars at the end of March 2025.
Net banking income amounted to 167.4 million dinars, an increase of 7.5 million dinars or 4.75%. This situation results from the effect of, firstly, an increase in banking operating income by 7.1 MTD or 2.02% to 356.3 MTD at the end of March 2025.
Secondly, banking operating expenses decreased by 0.5 MTD, or 0.27%, to 188.9 MTD at the end of March 2025, compared to 189.4 million dinars at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Operating expenses decreased by 1.6 MTD, or 1.92%, to 80.9 MTD at the end of March 2025. The cost/income ratio was 48.34% at the end of the first quarter of 2025, compared to 51.63% a year earlier.
Uptrend started in 2024
In 2024, STB achieved a net profit of 82 million dinars and a group profit of 103 million dinars, despite a provision of 200 million dinars.
The Ltd ratio (loans to deposits) was largely in surplus. By 2024, STB would no longer have recourse to the interbank market. As for internal control problems, they go back a long way.
Two external firms are currently working on reconciliation and multi-currency accounting. For STB, “this issue will be our absolute priority”, we are told.
