SEB Posts Forecast-Beating Net Profit on Strong Client Activity, Higher Rates
January 29 2020 - 2:42AM
Dow Jones News
By Dominic Chopping
STOCKHOLM--Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB-A.SK) on
Wednesday reported a forecast-beating fourth-quarter net profit
amid high client activity and higher interest rates, despite higher
costs from strategic investments and combating money
laundering.
The Sweden-based bank posted net profit of 5.83 billion Swedish
kronor ($605.8 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31 compared
with SEK4.58 billion a year earlier, beating the SEK5.05 billion
forecast from analysts polled by FactSet.
Net interest income rose 14% to SEK5.93 billion while operating
costs rose 8.4% to SEK6.03 billion.
"This was yet another quarter of high client activity and we
continued to grow across our home markets," Chief Executive Johan
Torgeby said.
"The investments in our strategic initiatives, aiming to
accelerate transformation by leveraging new adjacent business
opportunities, have also developed broadly as expected and we
remain committed to deliver on our cost target of SEK23 billion for
2021."
The bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio--a key measure of
financial strength--stood at 17.6% at the end of the quarter,
unchanged from last year.
In November last year, Swedish state broadcaster SVT reported
that it suspected almost 200 nonresident customers laundered money
through Swedish and Baltic accounts at SEB, but the bank responded
by saying that its own analysis had found it hadn't been used for
money laundering in a systematic way.
However, the Swedish FSA is investigating SEB's governance and
control of measures to combat money laundering, in cooperation with
supervisory authorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
The result of the FSA's investigation into SEB is expected in
April 2020.
The bank proposed a full-year dividend of SEK6.25. Last year it
paid an ordinary dividend of SEK6.00 plus an extraordinary dividend
of SEK0.50.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 29, 2020 02:27 ET (07:27 GMT)
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