OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2011. The SEB Group published its economic results for Q3 2011. Information about the results is available at www.sebgroup.com/ir, reported the press-centre of SEB Pank.

Riho Unt, Chairman of the Management Board of SEB Pank, commented on the results of Estonian units of SEB as follows:

“The business activity of companies that was rapidly increasing at the beginning of the year started to decrease in the third quarter. The financial standing of the companies is strong, but at the moment, readiness to launch new business projects is lower than a couple of quarters ago. One can see that security is swiftly decreasing on the main export markets of Estonia, which will surely affect Estonian exporters in the coming quarters. At the moment, the business of exporters is still thriving and the preparedness of the companies established in Estonia to cope with a new crisis is remarkably better than in 2007. There was an opportune moment in the third quarter to lock in loan interests and many big companies used it. The cool-down of the activity of the private sector has been compensated for by the government and government-invested enterprises. In addition, lending activity in the agricultural sector has been above average.

An important increase in activity can be noted in trade finance services – for instance, the factoring portfolio of SEB has increased by almost 90 per cent in one year. In the yearly comparison, the loan and leasing portfolio of SEB has decreased by two per cent, which is a very good result, taking the general decrease of the market into account. Differently from the loan portfolio, the deposits held at SEB have increased by 18 per cent in the yearly comparison, of which private individual deposits have increased by 14 and corporate deposits by 20 per cent.

While the corporate customer market rather stabilised in the previous quarter, the private customer market is showing rather important behavioural changes. The use of ATMs has decreased by seven per cent in one year, while there are 18 per cent more card transactions than a year ago. In addition, cash deposits using ATMs have considerably increased, even more than 30 per cent in one year, and thus SEB has almost doubled its network of cash deposit ATMs. As almost all cash transactions are carried out using machines, then it has become increasingly important for SEB to have a well-functioning and extensive network of ATMs. This was also the reason SEB decided to proceed with the joint ATM network project, as we believe that a larger network of ATMs is useful for the customers of SEB and cooperation in the field of banking helps to reduce inefficiency in the society.

The decreasing number of cash transactions helps the bank offices to focus more on the advising of the customers and on more substantive transactions. Reducing technical work in offices helps to apply new innovative ideas. For example, at the beginning of the next year, we are planning a transfer to a paper-free organisation of work in several offices. Using mobile devices for organising everyday finances has rapidly increased. Over 40 per cent of new phones sold are smartphones and this is also reflected in the growth of popularity of mobile banking – there are four times as many users than at the beginning of the year. Loan demand of private individuals remains at a relatively low level: in total, nearly 1200 housing loans are given in Estonia in a month, which is three times less than five years ago.”

The Estonian units of SEB finished Q3 2011 with a profit of EUR 23.9 million (the profit of SEB in Q3 2010 was EUR 14.5 million). Operating expenses of SEB reached EUR 32.9 million in the third quarter (compared to EUR 31.2 million in Q3 2010) and operating income reached EUR 16.1 million (compared to EUR 17.4 million in Q3 2010). In Q3 2011, the bank reduced its credit loss provisions in the amount of EUR 6.9 million (in the same period of 2010, the credit loss provisions were reduced by EUR 700 000). The total profit of three quarters was EUR 72 million (EUR 15 million last year).

In the attachment, you will find excerpts of the materials published today by SEB Group, including more detailed information about SEB Estonia.