8,022 million dinars. This is the amount reached by the aggregate Net Banking Income (NBI) of all resident banks in Tunisia, following growth of 5.5% during 2024 (compared to 8.7% at the end of 2023).
According to the Annual Report on Banking Supervision for 2024, published on Saturday by the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), this result was driven by the continued increase in investment portfolio income of 31.1% (primarily from interest on Treasury bonds), an improvement in net commissions of 4.5% and a decrease in the overall interest margin of 1.8%.
The BCT explained that the banks’ aggregate NBI was primarily used to cover operational expenses and depreciation (49.1%), and credit risk (19.1%). The remainder of the NBI was allocated to cover profits (19.6%) and profit taxes (12%).
It also noted that “the sector posted an aggregate net profit of 1.6 billion dinars, up by 8.6% (compared to 20.2% in 2023), which allowed the sector’s profitability indicators to remain nearly at the same level as the previous year; namely a Return on Assets (ROA) of 1% and a Return on Equity (ROE) of 10.3%.”
Furthermore, the central bank stated that “the evolution of the consolidated balance sheet structure of resident banks in 2024 was marked by a continued decline in the share of loans in total bank assets by 2.3 percentage points (pp) to 65% and a consolidation of the share of the securities portfolio in total bank assets by 3.4 pp to 20.1%.”
It also reported a consolidation in the share of dinar deposits by 1.4 pp, reaching 57.8% of bank liabilities, and a slight consolidation in the share of refinancing from the BCT to around 4.9%, explained mainly by the slowdown in medium and long-term borrowing.
Regarding the share of Treasury bonds in total assets, it increased from 9.4% in 2023 to 10.9% during 2024.
Relatively low credit outstanding
On another note, credit outstanding remain relatively low in 2024, at 3.2% growth compared to 2.4% in 2023, despite a slight acceleration in the growth rate of credit to professionals in 2024, driven by a significant increase in financing to public enterprises.
As for the securities portfolio outstanding, they increased by 28.1%, coming primarily from subscriptions to Treasury bonds and other government securities.
Regarding operating resources, they grew at a sustained rate of 9.2% (compared to 6.9% in 2023), fueled by the rise in dinar deposits, which reached 122.8 billion dinars. Banks’ use of money market resources recorded an increase of 13.2% (compared to a decrease of 23.5% in 2023), reaching 8 billion dinars.
It should be noted that for the year 2024, 17 banks posted a profit, totaling 1,753.9 million dinars (compared to 16 banks with a cumulative profit of 1,664.8 million dinars in 2023), and 5 banks posted a loss, totaling 179.5 million dinars (compared to 6 banks with a cumulative loss of 214 million dinars in 2023).
As part of the continued prudent dividend distribution policies, the BCT issued a circular to banks concerning the conditions for dividend distribution for the 2024 financial year.
Consequently, the cumulative profit of banks for 2024 was allocated as 48.4% for distributed dividends (amounting to 850 million dinars) and 51.6% for reserves.
