Financial results of SEB for the first six months of 2021

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

Allan Parik, Chairman of the Board of SEB Pank, commented on the six months’ results of SEB’s Estonian unit as follows.

The demand for loans is increasing, deposits continue to grow rapidly

The clients’ interest in financing increased in the second quarter, with the private client loan market especially active. SEB’s loan portfolio grew by 2.4 per cent in the second quarter, reaching almost 6 billion euros. At the same time, the clients’ deposits increased by 10.5 per cent, amounting to 5.4 billion by the end of the first six months. If the same trend continues, the loan and deposit portfolios will be equal in a few quarters, meaning that the need for financing would be fully covered by domestic savings. It may be presumed that the continued strengthening of the economic environment and the lessening of the uncertainty arising from the coronavirus crisis will continue to support the courage of commercial undertakings to invest in the upcoming months.

One client in four is prepared to invest

The number of clients who are interested in investing their savings productively is increasing rapidly. In order to provide a better service to those interested in investing, we have launched the first Robo- Advisor in the Baltic states in the second quarter which helps our clients to find suitable investment solutions via their mobile phones. The investment robot has been accepted very well by the clients; we have helped almost one thousand clients start regular investment in a short period of time.

Adjustment of the consumer loan market

Next to investments, another breakthrough is happening in the market of consumer loans. The consumer loan interests in Estonia have been the highest in Europe and we found that this was not appropriate for the level of development of our market. We have kept our consumer loan offer one third lower compared to the average of the market and can see that the market is coming along with the change and the average interest rate for small loans had dropped by a fifth in the market within one year. Meanwhile, the decrease in the credit cost rate of consumer loans has been around half of the decrease in the interest rates; therefore, clients should pay attention to the service fees and the transparency of calculating interests when comparing the terms and conditions of loans.

Sustainability is very important for the bank and the clients alike

SEB was the only bank to achieve the highest level of responsible entrepreneurship this year and we are proud of this. We have made great efforts together with our clients to be a responsible company and will continue to do so in the future. SEB’s ATMa and offices are working based on green energy, paperless services are being provided by our branch offices, and video meetings are held with the clients to save time and money and protect the environment by foregoing the trip to a branch office. SEB is advising our business clients on their journeys towards more sustainable and environmentally friendly activities and supports diversity and equal treatment in the working environment and in the entire society. SEB also supports communities by cooperation, donations, and mentorship.

The high-quality loan portfolio increased the profit of SEB by 23.3 per cent

Compared to the second quarter of the previous year, the revenue of the bank remained the same, but the expenses decreased by 5 per cent. Close cooperation with our clients and supporting them during difficult moments with 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 second quarter. Our high-quality loan portfolio and increasing efficiency enabled to ensure that the bank’s profit for the six months was 23.3 per cent higher compared to the same period last year.

The Estonian branch of SEB ended the first six months of 2021 with a profit of 50.7 million euros. In 2020, SEB ended the first six months with a profit of 41.1 million euros. In the first six months, the operating profit of SEB was 85.6 million euros (85.3 million euros in the first six months of 2020) and the operating expenses amounted to 28.9 million euros (30.4 million euros in the first six months of 2020). The bank reduced its reserves for credit losses by 0.5 million euros in the first half of 2021 (during the same period in 2020, the bank increased the reserves by 8.1 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