Awash Bank likes to cast itself as the jewel of the domestic private banking industry. On the numbers it filed for the 2024/25 financial year, that claim reads less like marketing and more like a test of the country’s new monetary regime.

In a year when the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) rewired its policy, raised interest rates, and allowed the Birr to slide under a more market-based exchange rate, Awash Bank booked record deposits, profits, and foreign-currency earnings while still holding an unusually large pool of unused liquidity.

Addressing shareholders at the Skylight Hotel, on Africa Avenue (Bole Road) in November 2025, Board Chairman Gure Kumssa hailed “an extraordinary performance in its own history and that of the history of the private banks.”

"It's a year of significant regulatory changes, double-digit inflation, ongoing depreciation of the Birr and a persistent credit cap that limited lending," Gure said.

Its President, Tsehay Shiferaw, the longest-serving chief executive, dubbed the results as the payoff from a “clear strategy and disciplined execution.”

Awash Bank had diversified its income, preserved asset quality, and used the new policy tools “faster and more aggressively” than its competitors.

The backdrop was harsh for the broader financial sector, though. Weak global trade, geopolitical tensions, and what Gure called “fragmented globalisation” weighed on exports and foreign direct investment (FDI).

At home, inflation remained in double digits, and the Birr continued to depreciate, even as falling commodity prices, especially oil, eased the import bill and helped lift foreign-currency earnings above 8.3 billion dollars and reserves to about two months of imports.

The turning point came in July 2024, when the Central Bank shifted to an interest-based framework. It set a 15pc policy rate, launched open-market operations and interbank money-market lending, moved to a more market-based exchange-rate regime, and scrapped foreign-exchange surrender requirements.

The reforms in monetary policy narrowed the gap between the official and parallel markets, improved incentives for exporters and remittance senders, but made imports more expensive. By June 2025, headline inflation had eased to 13.6pc, as the Birr weakened further against the Dollar.

For banks, the reforms meant both pain and opportunity. Higher funding costs and a persistent cap on credit growth squeezed traditional lending. Attractive Treasury-bill (T-bill) yields, an emerging interbank market, and foreign-exchange valuation gains opened new lines of income for financial institutions able to mobilise cheap deposits and move quickly.

Awash Bank’s results showed how that game can be played. It has become the gravitational centre of the private banking segment, and the latest data to December 2025 showed how far it has pulled ahead.

With deposits of about 412.5 billion Br, more than five times the private-bank average and roughly 22pc of the market, it mobilised 79.6 billion Br in fresh deposits over six months. This represented four times the peer average and well ahead of its closest challenger, Abyssinia Bank, which added roughly 50 billion Br.

Its balance sheet has the profile of a mature, systemically important financial institution rather than that of a fast-growing challenger. Total assets of about 640.7 billion Br and a loan book of roughly 268.9 billion Br make it the largest private lender by some distan. Yet, itsts loan-to-deposit ratio, at around 65pc, is conspicuously conservative next to an industry average closer to 79pc and a cluster of mid-tier banks above that threshold.

Loan growth of about 22.7pc year-on-year was only marginally above the peer average of roughly 21pc and far behind the most aggressive lenders, some of which expanded by more than 50pc. An assets-to-deposits ratio of about 1.55 revealed a sizeable allocation to non-loan assets, such as Treasury and Central Bank paper, placements and cash, trading off yield to reinforce liquidity in a volatile macroeconomic setting.

Awash has transformed itself into a private bank that commands more than one-fifth of industry deposits, leads in loans, assets, capital and forex, and operates the widest branch network. Policy changes to reserve requirements, liquidity coverage rules, deposit-rate policies, or forex-allocation frameworks could first and most forcefully be transmitted through Awash Bank’s balance sheet.

The Bank registered a step change. Total deposits, including letters-of-credit margins and interest-free banking, grew by 54pc to 358.4 billion Br at June 30, 2025, from 232.4 billion Br a year earlier. The structure remained tilted towards low-cost money. Savings accounted for 51.2pc of the total, demand deposits 35.1pc, time deposits 6.6pc, and letters-of-credit margins 7.1pc. Management has been deliberately targeting this mix to anchor a cheap and stable funding base ahead of the expected entry of foreign banks.

Credit expansion stayed robust but lagged deposit growth under the Central Bank’s credit ceiling. Total outstanding loans, advances, and interest-free financing reached 219.6 billion Br, up by 19.7pc, spread mainly across domestic trade and services, exports, construction, imports, and manufacturing.

Non-performing loans are about two percent of the total, well below the regulatory five percent threshold, a point Gure attributed to claims that asset quality remains “in good standing.”

Foreign currency is where Awash Bank stood out most clearly. International banking activities accounted for more than a third of total loans, and the Bank generated over two billion dollars in foreign exchange during the year, up from 1.52 billion dollars, marking the first time a private bank exceeded the two-billion mark.

The Management credited this to closer work with exporters, international organisations, religious institutions, and correspondent banks, and to stronger national export earnings. The balance sheet swelled accordingly.

Total assets climbed to 442.6 billion Br, a rise of 57pc. Total capital reached 58.4 billion Br and paid-up capital 27.9 billion Br after fresh share issuance of 2.75 billion Br and retained earnings, lifting shareholders’ equity by 54pc to 58.4 billion Br. These gave the Management more room to absorb shocks and fund expansion.

According to the Board Chairman, Awash Bank’s paid-up capital placed it among the top private banks and positions the capital build-up as the foundation for its aspiration to become one of the top 10 African banks by 2030. Its capital at the end of last year, about 76.9 billion Br, leaves Awash Bank towering over peers with average capital bases near 17 billion Br, but its capital-to-asset ratio of about 12pc sat below the peer average close to 18pc and a median around 15pc, a sign that balance-sheet expansion has outpaced internal capital generation.

For some shareholders, the transformation is both personal and financial.

Demesse Debes bought shares in the early days when the Bank was first incorporated as the first private bank in the mid-1990s, with a capital of 24.2 million Br. One of the early shareholders, he doubted the Bank could be a promising venture at the time. He now takes pride in his investment, allocating half of his dividends to his personal income and using the other half to buy more shares. A father of six, Demesse sees the dividends not only as a source of income but as a future inheritance for his children.

Awash Bank's income statement was even more dramatic.

Aminu Nuru, a financial analyst based in Doha, Qatar, observed that the sharp depreciation of the Birr boosted non-interest income through those gains and that the rapid growth of fees, commissions and other income strengthened revenue diversification and reduced reliance on interest income alone.

Total income grew by 77pc to 64.7 billion Br, and income from interest reached 36.2 billion Br, 56pc of total, and grew by about a third. Fee and commission income more than doubled to 17.2 billion Br, while other operating income leapt from 1.6 billion Br to 11.2 billion Br, largely on the back of 10.4 billion Br in foreign-exchange valuation gains as the Birr depreciated.