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HELSINKI, April 27 (Reuters) - The Nordic region's
biggest lender Nordea posted a larger than expected
gain in first-quarter operating profits on Thursday, on the back
of rising interest rates and despite weaker Nordic currencies.
The Finnish banking group reported an operating profit of
1.48 billion euros ($1.64 billion) in the quarter, up from 1.1
billion a year ago, beating the mean forecast of 1.36 billion in
a Refinitiv poll of analysts.
The rise in results followed a similar trend among other
Nordic banks such as Swedish rival SEB , which on
Wednesday beat market expectations and reported higher net
interest income.
"Despite slowing economic activity, our lending volumes
continued to develop positively," Chief Executive Frank
Vang-Jensen said in a statement.
The bank saw its net fee and commission income decline 8%
year on year to 765 million euros. Net interest income climbed
35% to 1.77 billion euros.
Nordea's return on equity for the quarter increased to 17.1%
from 12.6% a year ago and the bank reiterated it expects it to
exceed 13% for the full year 2023.
Nordea said individual net loan losses remained low
despite the Nordic economies slowing and kept its management
judgement buffer unchanged at 585 million euros.
($1 = 0.9049 euros)
(Reporting by Anne Kauranen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
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