The sudden economic slowdown did not yet significantly affect the first quarter results of SEB Eesti

Today, the SEB Group published its financial results for the first quarter of 2020, which can be found here: www.sebgroup.com/ir

Allan Parik, Chairman of the Board of SEB Pank, commented on the first quarter results of SEB Estonia as follows:

A sudden economic slowdown

In addition to public health, the economy has also been hit hard by the coronavirus and its depth and extent will only become apparent in the following quarters. Alongside other banks, SEB has developed a plan on how to contribute to helping the economy back on its feet. The key component of this solution is the bank’s ability to reduce the fixed expenses of individuals and companies in the form of grace periods and to provide new financing in the coming quarters. SEB is strongly capitalised and can offer its customers grace periods in the best possible way, as well as finance new projects.

Supporting clients with the profits of the previous year

In March, SEB decided not to pay dividends on the profit of the previous year and to use the 100 million euros to further support both its clients and the economy as a whole in these difficult times. To date, we have provided grace periods to more than 1,600 private and 400 business clients, in the total value of more than 380 million euros. The principal instalments of the loans are postponed, as needed, for up to six months, and in the case of home loans, for up to a year.

The emergency situation has brought about a digital leap

I am deeply grateful to our employees and clients who have complied with the request of social distancing and found ways to manage finances without needing to visit a branch office. The emergency situation has led to a digital leap – 85% of issues that were so far dealt with in branch offices are now handled via the phone or Internet. The video conference solution we developed a while ago has proved to be very useful: in the last month, its use has increased tenfold. We are currently helping business clients with creating e-shops by offering a comprehensive and simple e-payment solution. We have also simplified payment solutions for private clients – the payment limit of contactless payments is 50 euros during the emergency situation and you can now use the mobile bank to make name payments to customers of other banks as well, i.e. instead of the account number, you now only need to know the phone number of the recipient.

The first quarter still showed stable growth

The impact of the sudden economic slowdown is not yet visible in the first quarter results of SEB. Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, the bank earned 1.5 per cent less revenue. Due to the increase of reserves for possible credit losses, the bank’s year-on-year profit for the first quarter decreased by 7.3%. Within a year, clients’ deposits increased by 9.8%, from 4.3 billion euros to 4.7 billion euros. Meanwhile, clients’ loans increased by 8.9%, from 5.3 billion euros to 5.8 billion euros. The growth of the deposits was driven by households, while businesses and households contributed equally to the growth of loans.

SEB Estonia ended the first quarter of 2020 with a profit of 22.3 million euros. In 2019, SEB ended the first quarter with a profit of 24.1 million euros. In the first quarter, SEB’s operating profit was 41.3 million euros (42.0 million euros in the first quarter of 2019) and the operating expenses amounted to 14.7 million euros (15.2 million euros in the first quarter of 2019). The bank increased its reserves for credit losses by 1.3 million euros in the first quarter of 2020 (during the same period in 2019, the bank reduced the reserves by 0.4 million euros).

Further information:

Silver Vohu
Head of Communications
SEB
Telephone +372 665 5393
Mobile + 372 521 1170
E-mail: silver.vohu@seb.ee