STOCKHOLM – Swedish banking group Swedbank reported a second-quarter net profit above expectations on Tuesday and said economic conditions had continued to stabilize across its home markets.
The Nordic country’s biggest mortgage lender said net profit fell to 8.60 billion crowns ($810 million) from a year-ago 9.12 billion against a mean forecast of 7.96 billion in an LSE poll of analysts.
“It’s another strong quarter in uncertain times,” CEO Jens Henriksson told reporters.
“Loan demand remained stable in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In Sweden, demand for loan commitments increased, but the overall loan volumes remained muted.”
The rival to Handelsbanken, Nordea and SEB said its interest income – which includes revenue from mortgages – fell to 12.2 billion crowns from 12.8 billion, matching analysts mean expectations.
Total expenses increased to 6.47 billion crowns from 5.72 billion.
“Costs increased according to plan and the temporary hiring freeze I have put in place is having effect and the number of employees decreased in June,” Henriksson said. ($1 = 10.6151 Swedish crowns)
(Reporting by Johan Ahlander, editing by Anna Ringstrom)
