Baltic, Banks, Financial Services

The unaudited net profit of SEB bank group in Lithuania plummeted by 5.8 times, to 16.2 million litas, from 93.9 million litas in January-March 2008,

The earnings were estimated based on the requirements of the Bank of Lithuania and national legislation, SEB bank said in a statement.

In 2008 the audited net profit of Lithuania's SEB Bank group totalled 257.8 million litas, down 49.4% from the 2007 figure of 509.7 million litas. The profit of the bank alone shrank by 29.9%, to 347.7 million litas, from 496.1 million litas a year before.

In Estonia SEB earned a loss of 40 million kroons in the first quarter of this year, writes Postimees Online/LETA.

A year ago, the bank earned a profit of 13 million kroons.

The bank's turnover fell from 605 million kroons to 530 million kroons in the first quarter.

According to SEB, its operating expenses in Estonia amounted to 279 million kroons in the first quarter – 6% less than during the same period of time last year. The additional provisions for losses on loans grew by 281 million Estonian kroons (a year before it was 295 million kroons).

The bank's loans volume fell by 3% in the year-on-year comparison, while the volume of savings was on the same level as in the first quarter of 2008.

SEB group in Latvia reported a 9.5 million lats (EUR 13.5 mln) loss before paying corporate income tax in the first quarter of 2009, while Latvia's SEB Banka closed the three-month period with a loss of 11.1 million lats, the bank's representative told BNS.