Tue Feb 7, 2012 1:18am EST
(Repeats to news alerts with no changes)
STOCKHOLM Feb 7 (Reuters) – Swedish banking group SEB
posted fourth-quarter operating profits that were
largely in line with analyst forecasts on Tuesday and said it
would not make any further release of credit loss provisions in
the Baltics.
“The highly uncertain economic landscape and challenging
new banking regulation will further increase the future cost in
the banking industry,” SEB chief executive Annika Falkengren
said in a statement.
“In this perspective, it is a challenge to,
on top of European regulation, adapt to an even stricter
Swedish regulatory framework with earlier implementation
than for our European peers.”
She said business from corporate customers had held up well
despite an increasingly uncertain economic environment.
Operating earnings in the fourth quarter were 3.2 billion
crowns, compared with the 3.1 billion crowns seen in a Reuters
poll and down 28 percent from the 4.4 billion crowns reported in
the same period a year ago.
But following a string of quarterly provision reversals, the
bank reported net credit losses of 240 million crowns in the
fourth quarter.
