OREANDA-NEWS. July 22, 2011. Nordea Estonia, a member of the European leading financial group, continues to grow, earning a profit of 20 million in the first half-year. Total income increased by 13% year-on-year, accounting to 37.4 million Euros, reported the press-centre of Nordea.

“The good economic results of the first half-year and customer growth show that Nordea is a reliable bank valuing customer relations. We want to continue with a strategy relying on Nordea’s main values also in the coming half-year: develop customer relations, offer personal services, and increase operational efficiency," said Vahur Kraft, CEO of Nordea Estonia.

 “We have been busy developing Nordea’s electronic services and channels to offer our customers several new mobile banking solutions already this autumn,” Mr Kraft commented on future plans.

Nordea Estonia had ca 3.1 billion Euros worth of assets at the end of June. The bank’s loan portfolio accounted to ca 2.9 billion Euros, i.e. a 9% growth year-on-year. The leasing portfolio grew by 14%, reaching 447 million Euros.

At the end of June, the size of Nordea Estonia’s corporate loan and leasing portfolio was 1.78 billion Euros, the growth being 10% year-on-year. Nordea is holding the second position in the Estonian corporate loan market.

Private loans and leasings grew by 6% year-on-year and reached 981 million Euros at the end of June. The share of loan losses of the entire portfolio was 0.16% in the first half-year, which is considerably lower compared to other banks in Estonia.

Compared to previous years, customers have become ever more interested in investment products: the annual growth of private investment products was 58%.
Nordea Finance Estonia and Nordea Pensions Estonia, both operating under Nordea's parent brand, also had a successful half-year.

Nordea Finance Estonia was successful in sustaining growth, issuing 113.5 million Euros worth of new leasing and factoring credits in the first half-year. The total profit of the first 6 months was 4.8 million Euros.

The growth of pension sales and fund volumes has met the expectations. At the end of June, Nordea pension funds had almost 20,000 customers and the total volume of pension funds was around 35 million Euros, which shows that customers feel very confident investing their pension savings in Nordea.

At the end of June, Nordea Estonia had 159,872 customers, 21 offices and 571 employees. By the end of the quarter, the bank had issued 82,598 bank cards and had 100,961 internet bank users.

Nordea has received a number of international awards this year. The international financial magazine EMEA Finance declared Nordea the best bank in Estonia in 2010 at its European banking awards ceremony. Nordea was also chosen to be the best bank financing foreign trade in the Baltic and Nordic countries.