UPDATE 1-Swedbank profit beats forecast, raises dividend

(Adds detail, background, quote) STOCKHOLM, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Swedish bank Swedbank reported a bigger than expected rise in net profit for the fourth quarter and proposed raising its annual shareholder dividend on Tuesday as surging central bank interest rates helped lift income from mortgages. The bank, with deep roots in Sweden's two-centuries-old savings bank movement, reported a net profit of 6.81 billion Swedish crowns ($653 million) for the quarter, up from 4.84 billion a year ago, to come in above the mean forecast 6.26 billion in a Refinitiv poll of analysts.

Swedbank and its Nordic peers have seen a year of rapid-fire rate hikes by central banks, aimed at bringing red-hot inflation back under control, boost interest income while the pressure on households and businesses has only gradually begun filtering through into rising credit loss provisions.

"Credit impairments increased slightly due to the weaker macroeconomic outlook, but credit quality is good and our liquidity position is strong," Chief Executive Jens Henriksson said in a statement.

Swedbank, a rival of banks such as Handelsbanken and Nordea , said net interest income, which includes revenues from mortgages, rose to 10.92 billion crowns from 6.75 billion a year ago to beat the 9.31 billion seen by analysts.
(Reporting by Niklas Pollard, editing by Terje Solsvik)