STB Announces Q4 2024 Results: Net Banking Income Down 1.6%
The Société Tunisienne de Banque (STB) has announced a net banking income of 171,660 MTND for the end of 2024, a 1.6% year-over-year decrease. The interest margin has strongly contracted from 28.7% to 55,132 MTND. Interest income has decreased from 266,041 MTND in Q4 2023 to 243,328 MTND over the same period in 2024. Meanwhile, the loan portfolio has decreased by 7.0% to 9,774 MTND over a rolling year. The bank did not provide an explanation for this decline, but we believe that there has been a policy of rationalizing loan grants with the aim of better managing risks that have risen in the entire Tunisian economy. On the other hand, the institution has no deposit problems and has ended the year with a net collection of 1,220 MTND, the largest in the sector according to our estimates. In parallel, there have been more investments in asset management, which has performed well.
The negative trend has also affected net commissions on products, which have decreased by 13.2% to 32,131 MTND. STB is not the only bank to have suffered from this, as it is a consequence of the capping of banking service fees throughout the previous year. The revenues from the commercial and investment securities portfolio have helped to offset a large part of this loss, totaling 84,412 MTND. The investment portfolio weighs 3,887 MTND at the end of 2024.
For 2024, the net banking income has been established at 661,825 MTND, down 3.4% year-over-year. The only component that has shown a significant improvement is the revenues from the trading room, which have reached 304,425 MTND, or 46% of the net banking income for the year.
The bank's operating expense ratio has stood at 49.08% as of December 2024, compared to 46.81% the previous year. However, operating expenses have remained stable at 324,805 MTND. The decline in net banking income has not worked in favor of this ratio.
We believe that the bank's net income would be down compared to 2023. However, this remains dependent on the cost of risk. If it decreases, STB may perform better than expected.
