OREANDA-NEWS. July 26, 2011. Nordea Bank Lietuva, Lithuanian-based branch of Nordea, the leading financial services group in the Nordic and Baltic region, earned 17,8 million Litas of non-audited net profit in the first two quarters of the year. The bank’s earnings totalled 5.3 million Litas in the respective period of the previous year, reported the press-centre of Nordea Bank.

Inga Skisaker, General Manager of Nordea Bank Lietuva, said that the economic situation in Lithuania has already stabilized and has been improving lately. According to Manager of the company, a number of corporations facing financial hardships have been in decline since the end of the previous year. The expenditure for provisions on loan losses by Nordea Bank Lietuva totalled 19,6 million Litas in the two quarters, which is by 54,3 percentage lower in comparison to the same period last year.

The Bank’s assets grew by 3,7 percent in the second quarter and amounted to 8,3 milliard Litas as on 30 June 2011. The loan portfolio increased by 5,3 percentage points and reached 7,2 milliard Litas. The corporate customer portfolio grew by 6,8 percent and household (private) customer portfolio by 3,2 percentage points in the second quarter.  

Nordea Bank Lietuva continues its active operations in the household mortgage lending sector seeking to offer its customers fair and attractive crediting terms. The mortgage lending portfolio in the household customer segment increased by 3,9 percent in the second quarter of the year and reached 2,5 milliard Litas by the end of the second quarter.  

The deposit portfolio showed growth of 5,1 percent in the second quarter, while household customer portfolio grew by 10,5 percent and corporate portfolio by 3,5 percentage.

Half-year operating profit up 21% to EUR 1,952m

CEO Christian Clausen's comment to the report:

"The solid business momentum is maintained. Income from customer areas increased by 5% in the quarter and both operating and risk-adjusted profit are higher than last year. Loan losses are at the lowest level since 2008 and credit quality continues to improve.

At the same time, the trading result decreased from last quarter's high levels due to volatility in the financial markets and interest income was affected by increased and prolonged funding.

 Nordea's relationship strategy has laid a solid foundation for our New Normal ambition to reach an ROE in the top league of European banks of around 15%. In the autumn, we will continue to improve capital efficiency and implement plans to contain cost growth in the later part of 2011, and thereafter keep costs largely unchanged for a prolonged period of time."

Currency rates used for DKK, NOK and SEK for 2011 are for income statement items 7.46, 7.83 and 8.94 respectively.