Frank Vang-Jensen: An unsettled start to the year – but a solid quarter for Nordea

It has been an unsettled start to the year once again. The conflict in the Middle East that escalated in March has created further geopolitical uncertainty and is driving volatility in the financial markets. 

It also has implications for short-term energy supply and inflation. Sustained disruption to global energy markets may dampen economic activity, including in the Nordic countries.

Fortunately, our region has a strong track record in navigating uncertainty. The stability, fiscal strength and global competitiveness of our home markets make them some of the world’s best places to live and do business. This is something I often emphasise and also reflected on this time last year when we saw rising trade tensions.

In addition, our region is structurally well positioned in terms of energy resilience given its substantial renewable capacity and Norway’s role as a major energy exporter. We saw this clearly during the energy crisis in 2022.

As for Nordea, we are uniquely diversified across the attractive Nordic markets. Years of relentless execution have made us stronger and more resilient than ever – and very well placed to support customers. 

Driving profitable growth

That strength showed again in our first-quarter performance. We drove solid growth in business volumes and high profitability. Return on equity was 15.4%. 

We were especially active with corporate customers: lending was up 11% year on year, supported by strong growth in all countries. This was the first time we have recorded a double-digit increase in business loan volumes for any quarter since 2022, indicating healthy investment appetite among our customers.

For large corporates and institutions, we have arranged more than 190 debt capital market transactions so far this year, which is also encouraging. 

Corporate deposits were up 2%. 

Households were active too, focusing mainly on strengthening their savings and investments. This was demonstrated by a 5% year-on-year increase in deposits and strong net flows into retail funds. 

The Nordics housing markets are picking up, though it’s a gradual improvement and activity remains slow. Even in this environment, we grew mortgage lending by 2%. I was pleased to see us win further mortgage market share in Sweden in the quarter.

Strategy 2030 – momentum from day one

Our 2030 strategy focuses on six distinct growth areas and we are seeing good early momentum in Private Banking, Life and Pension, Small Businesses and cross-sales. We are also encouraged by the steady progress we are making in Sweden and Norway. 

Execution on the other two priorities of our 2030 strategy – strengthening our customer offering and making more effective use of our Nordic scale – is likewise off to a good start. 

During the quarter we launched a unified Nordic corporate credit and lending platform and took further steps in our deployment of a more scalable and resilient payments platform. 

Customers who save and invest with us will also have noticed the introduction of AI‑generated summaries of news related to investments in their portfolios. This is one of the many things we are doing to deliver an outstanding savings and investment experience for customers across the region.

Looking forward

There is uncertainty around global growth. However, confidence among Nordic businesses has not wavered, underlining the resilience of our region.

Nordea is also highly resilient. As a large and well‑established group, we are continually investing in capabilities that make us even stronger – including in digital services, technology, security and risk management.

We are also very well equipped to support customers and all stakeholders thanks to our unique market position and presence, leading offering and strong balance sheet.

The outlook for the full year 2026 is unchanged. Our vision is to become the undisputed best-performing financial services group in the Nordics.

/ Frank