Nordea records large loan losses

Helsinki-based Nordea Bank said on Friday that its profit had declined significantly due to loan losses, reported Xinhua.Nordea Bank records large loan losses, Q2 profit down, reported Xinhua.

In its Q2 report this year, the bank registered an operating profit of 306 million euros, compared with 900 million euros in Q2 one year ago.

The amount of net loan losses reached 698 million euros, which was only 61 million euros a year ago, the bank report showed. Nordea said the losses were especially because of the customers in the oil and gas sector that had already suffered from the decline in oil price.

Frank Vang-Jensen, CEO of Nordea Bank, said that among the loan losses, 388 million euros were a management judgement and 310 million euros were already realized. He underlined that to tackle with the loan risk, "a proactive approach would be appropriate in the current economic uncertainty."

However, Vang-Jenssen said Nordea now has a 650-million-euro buffer to cover future loan losses.

Economic analyst Antti Saari of the Finnish OP Financial Group told Finnish business daily Kauppalehti on Friday that "on the whole" the Nordea result is not "so bad" as the figures show.