Swedbank Declares Special Dividend as 4Q Net Profit Beat

By Dominic Chopping

STOCKHOLM--Swedbank AB on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter net profit that slightly beat expectations and declared a special dividend.

Quarterly net profit rose to 4.84 billion Swedish kronor ($520.8 million) from SEK4.51 billion, while net interest income slipped 0.2% to SEK6.55 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected net profit of SEK4.79 billion and net interest income of SEK6.61 billion.

The Swedish bank declared a dividend for 2021 of SEK9.25 a share plus a special dividend of SEK2 a share.

The bank reported loan loss reversals of SEK67 million, from losses of SEK523 million last year.

The cost cap of SEK20.5 billion excluding expenses related to money laundering investigations for 2022 remains unchanged, but now also excludes the new bank tax, it said.

"We are carefully monitoring the pandemic, which is currently causing large numbers of people to call in sick from work in society at large and among Swedbank's staff," Chief Executive Jens Henriksson said.

The bank added that the U.S. authorities are continuing to investigate the bank over anti-money laundering and combating financing of terrorism and the various investigations are at different stages.

The bank's common equity Tier 1 ratio--a measure of financial strength--was 18.3%, compared with 17.5% in the year-earlier quarter.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 02, 2022 02:03 ET (07:03 GMT)

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