Nordea’s unique Nordic position delivers strong results

This first half year, the geopolitical landscape has remained fragile, and macroeconomic uncertainty and persistently high inflation have put pressure on both private individuals and corporates. We have also seen turbulence in the financial markets.

Nordea is one of the most stable and profitable banks in Europe. Our franchise is resilient: we have a very well diversified pan-Nordic business model, a sound financial risk position and a strong balance sheet. Moreover, the Nordic region is very stable and financially strong. All this gives us a unique position and makes us a safe and strong partner for customers, shareholders and broader society.

Our business portfolio is large and spread evenly across the Nordic region and across different sectors. This is a structural advantage, which enables us to avoid larger concentrations. We have many business opportunities and see no real signs of stress in our portfolio, but are naturally following the impact of macro developments on our customers very closely.

In the second quarter we continued to drive high levels of customer activity and strong results.

In all our divisions, income is growing faster than costs, and our aim is to continue delivering in this way. In the second quarter our income grew by 22% and operating profit increased by 26%. This quarter marks the tenth in a row for which we were able to grow our annualised operating profit.

We improved our cost-to-income ratio to 40%, excluding regulatory fees, despite costs increasing by 7%. We continued to manage strong inflationary pressures and invest to protect against financial crime, strengthen cyber security and enhance our technological capabilities even further, in line with our plan.

Since we launched the repositioning of Nordea in 2019, we have consistently grown our business and improved our performance and profitability. We have established a new, sustainably higher level of profitability and are now among the best performing banks in Europe.

Building on our current position, we are striving to improve our performance even further. We aim for nothing less than to serve our customers to the best of our ability and be the preferred partner for them – now and in the future.