SEB: In the first quarter of 2019, customer savings profit exceeds the bank’s profit

SEB Group in Latvia has concluded the first three months of this year with a profit of EUR 14 million, in turn the profit gained by customers from savings in 2nd and 3rd Pension Pillar plans has reached EUR 62.6 million.

Profit of SEB 2nd Pension Pillar plan participants during the first quarter of 2019 was EUR 49 million, while the average accrual per one participant of SEB 2nd Pension Pillar plan has increased by EUR 270. Profit of SEB 3rd Pension Pillar plan participants in the first three months of 2019 was EUR 8 million. In management of institutional customer investment portfolios, SEB Investment Management succeeded to ensure profit of EUR 5.6 million for its customers already in the period January – March. Overall, the assets controlled by SEB Investment Management in the end of the first quarter of 2019 reached almost EUR 1.5 billion, out of which EUR 1.1 billion is 2nd and 3rd Pension Pillar assets.

Beginning of the year has been successful in respect of providing financing as well. Owing to the fact that people have been highly active and interested in possibilities of getting a loan for purchasing a home or for redecoration, the amount of new financing granted by SEB banka in the first quarter of this year is one of the largest in the last 2 years – EUR 38.7 million, or 28% more than in the first quarter of the last year.

Over 4500 new customers chose SEB banka as their financial partner in the first quarter, increasing the number of active customers to 411’000 – about 383 of those are private persons and 28’000 are small and medium enterprises.

Ieva Tetere, CEO of SEB banka:

“The first quarter has been very active – from financial market supervision matters and focus on fighting money laundering to substitution of code cards, which is important to us and the customers alike. For us, substitution of code cards in Latvia this year is one of the most complicated projects involving a large number of customers.

Despite the fact that public discussions about fight against money laundering have affected the financial sector in Latvia in general, I am certain that focus on this area will increase in the near future in context of good state administration and business sustainability. It matters to us as a bank that Latvia is a well arranged place for the society and entrepreneurs, which is why I have gladly been discussing these issues with customers, in state administration and in the recent European Commission conferences in Brussels, Vienna and Slovakia.

Currently, with the matter of substituting code cards being topical, we are offering customers in Latvia a unique service – a mobile branch, which gives an opportunity to render bank services anywhere – for customers in the towns where daily there are no branch premises, and also in municipal and NGO premises. What was very worthy for both ourselves and the customers was our mobile branch team visiting the Latvian Association of the Deaf recently, and we also work with the Latvian Association of the Deaf. Additionally, with a view to not only popularise usage of contactless cards but also explain issues related to their security, together with MasterCard and the Finance Latvia Association, we launched a joint educational project about contactless cards “Beep and done” (“Pīk un gatavs”).

Of significance is our participation in the “E-skill week” aimed at future financial literacy, as we are inviting schools to visit the bank for the third year now to tell pupils about digitalisation, finances and economics, as well as participate in various state-organised discussion forums about this topic. This opportunity was used by nearly 200 pupils last year. For the purpose of providing valuable content to teachers too, we organised a workshop for teachers “Economics. Digitalisation. Innovations”, which took place in March at the SEB Innovations Centre and gathered around 50 senior grade educators, economics teachers, career consultants, as well as school management and representatives of interest education. After receiving feedback from the participants, I can conclude that such events are in demand and we will definitely repeat them.

To promote entrepreneurship, this year we are continuing eAcademy workshops, which bring together participants who are only in the stage of incubating their ideas. We are very happy that we are able to provide useful information – the informational website has been visited by over 40’000 people since launching eAcademy. In turn, to help the existing companies prepare for rapid business growth through innovations and digital technologies, in March we commenced already the third cycle of the Growth program, which we started last year, and it will go on until June.”

Johan Torgeby, President and CEO:

"Being a universal bank, we continued to benefit from our diversified business exposure. Client activity levels remained sound in the first quarter, despite the seasonal slowdown. The operating profit of SEK 5.9bn was 12 per cent higher than the first quarter last year. Our strong capital position combined with high liquidity provide the financial strength needed to support our customers going forward."

The financial results of SEB Group in Latvia in the first quarter of 2019:

• revenue of SEB Group in Latvia reached EUR 27.1 million, or 14% more than in the first quarter of 2018;
• costs amounted to EUR 11.8 million, or 2% more than in the corresponding period of 2018;
• profit before provisions amounted to EUR 15.3 million, or 25% more than in the period of January – March 2018;
• provisions in the amount of EUR 1 million were made during the period from 1 January to 31 March;
• Operating profit after tax and provisions amounted to EUR 14 million in the first 3 months of 2019, which is 1% more than the corresponding period in 2018;
• the total amount of deposits with SEB banka as at 31 March 2019 was EUR 2.87 billion, exceeding the volume of deposits at the end of March 2018 by 18%;
• at the end of March 2019, the total loan portfolio was EUR 3 billion, i.e., 11% more than at the end of the first quarter of 2018;
• as at 31 March 2019, capital and reserves amounted to EUR 355.1 million;
• at the end of March 2019, assets amounted to EUR 3.932 billion.

Recognitions and awards received in the first quarter of 2019:

• Recruitment company “CV Online” honoured Latvia’s best employers, ranking SEB banka in honourable 2nd place.
• For the fifth time already, the Global Finance Magazine has recognised SEB as the best bank in Latvia in 2019.