Financial results of SEB for the first quarter of 2021

Today, the SEB Group published its financial results for the first quarter of 2021, which can be found www.sebgroup.com/ir.

Allan Parik, Chairman of the Board of SEB Pank, commented on the first quarter results of SEB’s Estonian unit as follows:

‘The first quarter was characterised by tighter restrictions to control the coronavirus situation. The economy has generally coped well with the restrictions, unemployment has remained lower than expected, and the range of sectors under pressure has not expanded.

The restrictions increased savings

More than 305 million euros have been added to the bank accounts of SEB’s private clients during the year. About half of this amount is estimated to be additional savings that have accumulated due to the crisis. Of SEB’s private clients, 36–50-year-olds have been able to increase their savings the most over the year – by 15.2 per cent – and young people aged 18–25 have increased their savings the least – by 6.5 per cent. Thus, the growth of deposits is broad-based and over a long period of time, all age groups will benefit. Companies also increased their deposits. In total, deposits in SEB increased by almost 625 million euros or 13.2 percent during the year.

As consumption opportunities are limited, private clients are discovering investing. A recent survey conducted by SEB shows that 40 percent of the population have not invested their money. At the same time, most of those who are not currently making investments could save between 20 and 100 euros per month for it without having a significant impact on their normal consumption patterns.

One in four people could start investing

Although there has been a lot of talk at the beginning of the year about the growth of real estate prices and the market, as well as of the loan business, the field of investment is actually the one making a significant breakthrough. In the first quarter, we have been actively working on solutions that make investing easier and more convenient for clients. We think that one in four of our clients could start investing in the near future and we want to be the most competitive bank in the market for a beginner as well as an experienced investor. To this end, we reduced foreign securities transaction fees for the second time this year and eliminated transaction fees from our investment funds. This allows our clients to start investing in small amounts as often as they wish. In addition, the current fees of our funds are almost half as low as before.

We are also working on innovations in counselling as in addition to low fees, clients also need help to make the right decisions. We are coming up with a solution in the near future that will help our clients find the most suitable solution among the various investment opportunities. In addition to the above, the clients of SEB already have the opportunity to open a pension investment account in order to start investing the assets of the second pension pillar in the autumn.

The high-quality loan portfolio increased the profit of SEB by 16.6 percent

Compared to the first quarter of the previous year, the revenue of the bank increased by 3.3 percent and expenses decreased by 5.5 percent. Close cooperation with our clients and supporting them during difficult moments through grace periods and additional liquidity has kept the quality of the loan portfolio good and therefore, the bank reduced the reserves for possible loan losses by 0.5 million euros in the first quarter. Revenue growth, increased efficiency, and a high-quality loan portfolio meant that the first-quarter profit of the bank was 16.6 percent higher than in the first quarter of last year.

The Estonian branch of SEB ended the first quarter of 2021 with a profit of 25.9 million euros. In 2020, SEB ended the first quarter with a profit of 22.2 million euros. In the first quarter, the operating profit of SEB was 42.7 million euros (41.4 million euros in the first quarter of 2020) and the operating expenses amounted to 14.0 million euros (14.8 million euros in the first quarter of 2020). The bank reduced its reserves for credit losses by 0.5 million euros in the first quarter of 2021 (during the same period in 2020, the bank increased the reserves by 1.3 million euros).’

Additional information:

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