Results of Nordea Group in the 3rd Quarter of year 2014

CEO Christian Clausen’s comments on the results:

“In the third quarter we continued to welcome more new customers and were trusted with more savings, thereby passing the milestone of EUR 250bn in assets under management. Despite continued macro headwind, income is holding up well and we are clearly on track to deliver on our cost targets. Credit quality continues to improve and the loan loss level is below the 10-year average.

Nordea once again was confirmed as one of the safest banks globally, when issuing two Additional Tier 1 instruments, of USD 1.5bn with the lowest coupons among corresponding instruments issued in the USD market. This strengthened the Tier 1 ratio by 75 basis points and our total capital ratio is above 20%.

We are continuously developing our services to meet the changing customer behaviour. To provide even more personalised and convenient solutions we are currently simplifying our processes and will as a next step build new core banking and payment platforms, leading to an average annual increase in our combined IT investments of approximately 30-35% over the coming 4-5 years. As a consequence we will replace some of our current IT systems, leading to an impairment charge of EUR 344m.”

First nine months 2014 vs. First nine months 2013 (Third vs. Second quarter 2014):

• Total operating income -1%, in local currencies +2% (-3%)
  
• Total expenses -4%, in local currencies -1% (-2%, in local currencies -1%)
  
• Operating profit +7%, in local currencies +9%¹ (-3%¹)
  
• Common equity tier 1 capital ratio 15.6%, up from 13.4%² (up to 15.6% from 15.2%)
  
• Cost/income ratio down to 49%¹ from 51% (unchanged at 49%)
  
• Loan loss ratio of 15 basis points, down from 21 basis points (down to 12 bps from 16 bps)
  
• Return on equity 11.5%, up from 11.2% (down to 11.2% from 12.0%)