Baltic, Banks, Deposits, Financial Services, Loan

SEB Banka spokeswoman Kristine Martinsone in Latvia told BNS that the banking group's revenue in Latvia came to EUR 23.1 million in the first quarter of this year, dropping by 2% from the first three months of 2015, while the group's costs rose 5% to EUR 13.1 million. Consequently, the banking group's profit before provisions was EUR 10.1 million, or 10% smaller than in the first quarter of 2015.

During the first quarter of this year, SEB Banka put aside EUR 2.7 million worth of provisions, or 63% more than a year ago.

Deposits in SEB Banka grew 9% year-on-year to EUR 2.2 billion at the end of March 2016, and the bank's loan portfolio decreased 5% year-on-year to EUR 2.4 billion.

During the first three months of 2016, the bank granted 2,842 new loans worth EUR 129 million in total, up 58% from the same period last year. Of these loans, 78% or EUR 101 million were granted to businesses.

SEB Banka also granted nearly 500 new mortgage loans worth roughly EUR 22 million in total, including EUR 10.4 million worth of mortgage loans issued under the government's housing loan program.

Commenting the first-quarter results, SEB Banka CEO Ieva Tetere said that the trend recorded at the end of last year continued this year as negative interest rates were still affecting business results, reducing revenue. In addition to that, clients' behavior was also changing as visits to the bank's offices dropped by 30% in the first quarter of 2016, the usage of online banking services increased by 8% and the activation of Ibank's mobile app jumped 50%.

Tetere also noted that the first quarter of 2016 had been very busy in terms of lending as the economic situation improved and people's income grew faster than housing prices.

The SEB Group closed the first quarter of 2015 with EUR 8.675 million in Latvian profit, while the bank's profit came to EUR 9.392 million.

SEB Bankas, Lithuania’s biggest commercial bank, posted 11.3 million euros in net profits in the 1st quarter of 2016, down by 37.9% from 18.2 million euros year-on-year.

SEB Bankas' net unaudited profit was 12.5 million euros in the January-March period of this year, indicating a drop by 32.1% from the same period of 2015, the bank said in a press release.

SEB Bankas revenue in the first quarter of 2016 stood at 37.2 million euros, down by 9% from 41 million euros year-on-year.

"The bank's revenue has been affected by the continuing environment of negative interest, which was in part compensated by the bank's loan portfolio that started increasing last year – net income from interest went up by 7% in the first quarter of this year," SEB Bankas president Raimondas Kvedaras said.

The group's properties swelled by more than 7% over the past 12 months to 6.9 billion euros at the end of March. The net value of the group's loan and leasing portfolio, which accounts for the bulk of the properties, grew by 6% to 5 billion euros over the past year.

The bank's deposit portfolio was 4.7 billion euros in late March, up by 10% year-on-year.

SEB Bankas' own capital stood at 730 million euros on March 31, down by 3% year-on-year.

Estonian units of the Swedish financial group SEB ended the first quarter of 2016 with a net profit of 12.8 million euros, which is 33.3% less than in the same period of the previous year.

The decline was partly due to the income tax paid on dividends. The effect of the payment excluded, the bank's profit decreased 18.6%.

SEB's operating income amounted to 31.8 million euros, down by 4.2% year-on-year, and operating expenses totaled 14.8 million euros, 1.4% more than in the first quarter of 2015. Loan loss provisions were reduced by 0.7 million euros, compared with a reduction by 2.9 million euros made in the same period last year, SEB said.

In the first quarter, SEB Estonia paid a dividend of 20 million euros to the parent company, in connection with which it paid corporate income tax in the amount of 5 million euros into the Estonian state budget. A year earlier, it paid a dividend of 10 million euros and income tax on it was 2.2 million euros.

The year has had an auspicious start for the Estonian economy and the business sentiment has improved, CEO of SEB Pank Allan Parik said, noting increased optimism in industry, construction and the services sector alike. Demand among Estonia's principal trading partners is on the rise, which in turn increases industrial orders, and investments made with the support of European Union funds both improve Estonia's infrastructure and give work to the construction sector that has been partly idle thus far, he said.

SEB expects the growth of household deposits to continue at the present pace and markedly outstrip loan growth. Private individuals' borrowing activity is slightly higher than at the start of last year but more moderate than in the second half of 2015. SEB issued in the first quarter 32% more housing loans than the year before.

Financing of small and medium-sized businesses' investments increased 15% in annual comparison, which SEB said is a sign of increased confidence. Low interest rates, advantageous energy prices and improved expectations of the economic environment encourage companies to launch new projects. The bank currently has in hand 300 million euros' worth of financing projects of big companies.