Commentary on the financial results of SEB for the nine months of 2022

Today, the SEB Group published its financial results for the first nine months of 2022, information on which can be found here: www.sebgroup.com/ir.

Allan Parik, Chairman of the Board of SEB Pank, commented on the results of the Estonian unit of SEB for the nine months as follows:

The revenues of the Estonian unit of SEB for nine months increased by 7.3 per cent compared to last year, while expenses were eight per cent higher. The loan and leasing portfolio of SEB increased by 7.8 per cent compared to the same time last year. The high-quality loan portfolio and customer activity ensured that the nine-month profit of SEB was 6.8 per cent higher than at the same time last year.

The economic environment is cooling, but companies are strong

SEB recently conducted a survey among the CFOs of large companies, which showed that general confidence has decreased to the level of 2016–2017. Despite the lower level of confidence, 39 per cent of financial managers of large Estonian companies rate the business conditions of next year as good or very good. A total of 56 per cent of the respondents rate the current financial situation of their company to be good or very good. In contrast, 12 per cent of the respondents rate the current financial situation of their company to be bad. Last year, they accounted for six per cent of the respondents. SEB supports both those who want to invest in the current economic environment and those who need support to survive these difficult times.

Private savings decreased

While the savings of our private customers grew by double-digit numbers during the last few years, in the third quarter of this year, the deposit portfolio of private individuals shrank by 0.7 per cent compared to the previous quarter. The decrease in deposits is not only due to the increase in the cost of living, but also to higher consumption. According to the statistics of SEB, in 2022, people spent on travel as much as before the pandemic, and even a third more was spent on eating in restaurants this summer than in, for example, 2019. The rise in the cost of living and the desire to maintain one’s standard of living have already started to reduce the savings of families, but the autumn and winter months with higher fixed costs are still ahead.

SEB earned a profit of 80.8 million in nine months

SEB Pank Grupp (Group) ended the first nine months of 2022 with a profit of 80.8 million euros, compared to 75.6 million euros at the same time last year. In nine months, the operating income of the Group reached 140.6 million euros (131 million euros in the same period of 2021) and operating expenses 48.1 million euros (44.5 million euros in the same period of 2021). The bank reduced its reserves for loan losses by 0.7 million euros in the first nine months of 2022 (during the same period in 2021, the bank increased the reserves by 0.5 million euros). Income tax was calculated at 10.8 million euros in the first nine months of 2022 (9.7 million euros in the same period in 2021).

Additional information:

Silver Vohu
Head of Communications
SEB
Mobile + 372 521 1170
Email: silver.vohu@seb.ee