Q2: Continued strong performance by Nordea

Nordea performed strongly in the second quarter of 2024, with year-on-year income growth and a return on equity of 17.9%. Our results show that despite the slow economy, we continue to make good progress on our strategic priorities and deliver industry-leading financial performance.

Macroeconomic uncertainty remains high due to the challenging geopolitical climate. Nevertheless, household and business sentiment in the Nordics has recently shown signs of improvement. Inflation has fallen, and during the quarter we saw the first policy rate cuts in three of our four home markets. These cuts, along with further anticipated reductions this year, should help brighten the picture for the Nordic economies.  

Throughout the second quarter, we engaged extensively with our customers across all touch points. Our advisers were especially active, holding 7% more customer meetings than last year. 

Use of our digital services also grew to a record high. We have further strengthened our digital services, adding more personalisation and self-service features. 

Overall, customers’ savings and investments activity increased during the quarter, and this contributed to a 1% year-on-year increase in household deposit volumes. While the Nordic housing markets were subdued, we maintained stable mortgage lending volumes. Encouragingly, in the latter part of the quarter we saw the first small signs of improvement as demand for new loan promises picked up. 

Corporate deposits grew by 5% year on year, while lending was a little softer, with volumes decreasing by 1% from the same quarter last year. In a subdued economic environment, we were very active in supporting our corporate clients, especially in debt capital markets, and continued to see improved sentiment and momentum. 

Fraud is a growing problem for societies and we have continued to strengthen the measures that keep our customers safe. Alongside increased monitoring, we have implemented enhanced security features, such as delayed withdrawals and transaction limits. We have done a lot of good work in this area over the past few months and you will see us continue to raise awareness about fraud through active dialogue in society and our marketing.

All in all, this was another strong quarter for Nordea. Our second-quarter results keep us on track to deliver a strong performance for the full year. 

Our strong financial position also supports our ability to invest in strengthening Nordea even further, which we continue to do. We are making significant investments into, among other things, our technology infrastructure, digital offering, data and AI, and risk management capabilities.

These are important investments that will keep Nordea resilient, strong, and help us fulfil our ambition –  to be the preferred financial partner for customers in the Nordics.