HELSINKI/STOCKHOLM—Finland’s Nordea and Sweden’s Swedbank reported higher earnings for the third quarter on Thursday as banks across the region recovered strongly from the impact of the pandemic and shifted excess capital to shareholders. Helped by the easing of restrictions, Nordic banks like their peers elsewhere in Europe have benefited from rising corporate and consumer activity while a glut of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and initial public offerings (IPOs) has yielded rich pickings for their investment banking arms. After forecast-beating earnings from Sweden’s SEB and Handelsbanken this week, the region’s biggest lender Nordea saw its quarterly operating profit rise to 1.27 billion euros ($1.48 billion) from 1.09 billion a year ago, in line with market expectations. “We have entered a new phase of recovery from the pandemic and, as a bank, we have done so from a position of strength,” Nordea Chief Executive Frank Vang-Jensen said in a statement. Meanwhile, Swedbank, …
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