Tunisia

Tunisia's banking system comprised 22 resident and seven non-resident banks at end-2025, alongside leasing, factoring, merchant-banking and payment institutions – 47 licensed entities with combined assets of TND 196.9bn, or 116% of GDP on BCT data. Resident banks account for 94% of the total. The state retains a large footprint through public banks such as STB and BNA, while BIAT, the largest private bank, held 21.4% of the deposits of the ten principal banks in 2025 and ranked second in lending. Foreign-owned banks include Attijari Bank, a subsidiary of Morocco's Attijariwafa Bank.

Balance sheets are increasingly tilted towards the state. Financing to the public sector reached 27.6% of sector assets in 2025, up from 24.7%, as resident banks' holdings of Treasury bills rose 39.4% to TND 25.7bn and loans to public enterprises grew 15%. Lending to the private sector is sluggish: total loans rose 3.4% to TND 111.9bn, with credit to private businesses up only 2.3%. Deposits grew 7.3% to TND 123.0bn, driven by dinar sight and savings deposits, while foreign-currency deposits fell 5.1%.

Earnings have shifted from lending to securities. Resident banks' interest margin fell 14.6% in 2025, reflecting weak credit growth and the halving of interest on fixed-rate long-term loans under Law 2024-41, while gains on the securities portfolio rose 33.2%; net banking income increased 4.9% to TND 8.4bn and net profit 7.6% to TND 1.7bn. Classified loans remain high at 14.9% of commitments (20.8% for private companies), with provision coverage of 51.6%. Solvency and Tier 1 ratios improved to 15.1% and 12.1%, and ROE reached 11%.

The principal risks are the sovereign-bank nexus, weak private credit demand and persistent asset-quality pressure. The state relies heavily on domestic financing, including exceptional BCT facilities of TND 6.85bn in 2025 and a further TND 7bn provided for in the 2026 budget, while external borrowing is limited. Classified loans rose to 15.1% of commitments at end-June 2026, and a record energy bill widened the current-account deficit to 2.3% of GDP in the first half of 2026, with net foreign assets at 92 days of imports in late July.