Resilient, highly profitable and growing: That’s Nordea after a strong 2024

2024 reminded us of how unpredictable the world can be. In the Nordics, we’re fortunate to live in stable and prosperous societies. Even so, our open economies aren’t immune to uncertainty. Challenges remain, especially with geopolitical tensions a part of our everyday reality.

The good news is that inflation and interest rates have been coming down, bringing some welcome relief to households and businesses. There are also signs that economic activity is picking up and our region may be turning a corner.

At Nordea, we’ve stayed focused on what matters most: delivering on our priorities and fulfilling our role as a strong and resilient partner for customers, shareholders and society. That strength and resilience was evident in our 2024 financial results. Year on year, income grew by 3%. And at 16.7%, our full-year return on equity exceeded 16% for the second year in a row.

The strong performance continued into the fourth quarter of the year, with further good business momentum and high customer activity in savings and investments. 

Our customers have maintained stable financial positions. We’ve seen that in continued low credit losses and strong deposit activity. In the fourth quarter, retail deposits increased by 2% year on year, or by 5% when including our recent successful acquisition of Danske Bank’s Norwegian personal and private banking business. Corporate deposit volumes rose by 8%.

Lending volumes grew as well. Fourth-quarter mortgage lending was up 6% year on year. There were further signs that the Nordic markets are beginning to gradually recover after a couple of slow years, with demand for housing loan promises increasing once again. Corporate lending grew by 1%.

Higher profitability and customer satisfaction

Our sustained high profitability shows the considerable progress we’ve made since our repositioning in 2019. Supported by our strategic investments, we’ve grown the business, created sustainable efficiencies and strengthened customer experience. 

Customer satisfaction is up across the board. We see this in both our internal data and external benchmarks, such as Prospera’s 2024 corporate and private banking rankings, where we performed very well. 

We’ve also made great strides in Sweden, where, five years ago, we launched a strategic initiative to strengthen our market position and win the hearts of Swedish customers. We have continuously moved forward and gained more business and market shares. Last month, Nordea was named Sweden’s Bank of the Year by a leading national financial publication for the first time. That recognition underlines that we’re on the right path.

All in all, these were a strong set of financial results – showing that Nordea is resilient, highly profitable and growing. I’m grateful to our employees for their hard work and contribution through the year. I’d also like to thank our customers and shareholders for their continued support and cooperation.

For 2024, our Board of Directors has proposed a dividend of EUR 0.94 per share. Over the past five years we’ve distributed EUR 11.9bn in dividends, benefiting our more than 580,000 shareholders in the Nordics. We’re proud to see the returns we generate making a positive impact, supporting economic activity, innovation and contributing to our region’s security.

Looking ahead, global uncertainty remains high. However, our franchise is strong. We enter 2025 as one of the top-performing universal banks in Europe. We target further strong financial performance, and expect 2025 return on equity to stay above 15%.

Our ambition is unchanged: to be the to be the preferred financial partner in the Nordics.

/Frank