Published by Global Banking and Finance Review
Posted on May 2, 2025
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark's biggest lender Danske Bank reported forecast-beating first-quarter profits on Friday and said it expects the global trade war to have a moderate impact on its main Nordic markets, booting its shares.
U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs have sown turmoil in financial markets and raised fears of a recession, prompting major banks to say they will affect industries from manufacturing to retail to banking.
The Nordic region has so far been resilient, with strong economic data across the region and Danske Bank said its first-quarter results reflected this.
"In the first quarter of 2025, we saw an increasingly promising outlook for growth and inflation and robust employment across the Nordic countries," it said in a statement.
"While a potential risk of recession is highlighted in the U.S., a more moderate impact is expected on European growth, including in the Nordic countries," it said.
Danske's net profit for the January to March period rose 2% to 5.76 billion Danish crowns ($873 million) from a year earlier, compared with the 5.31 billion predicted by 13 analysts in a poll provided by the bank.
Shares in Danske Bank have risen 30% since early-April. They traded 3.6% higher at 0711 GMT on Friday, topping the STOXX Europe 600 index.
The bank still expects net profit for the year of between 21 billion and 23 billion crowns, slightly lower than in 2024, primarily due to lower net interest income from lower market rates.
The region's biggest lender Nordea last month also reported forecast-beating profits.
Danske Bank said it took an impairment charge of 50 million crowns in the first three months of the year, compared with the 195 million expected by analysts.
Net interest income, a metric for measuring banks' income from lending and deposits, fell 1% to 9.02 billion in the first quarter but was above the 8.86 billion forecast by analysts.
Net fee income rose 8% to 3.66 billion, compared with the 3.57 billion predicted by analysts.
"We delivered solid results in line with our expectations, driven by a steady development in core income and a stable cost level," CEO Carsten Egeriis said in a statement.
"In addition, credit quality remained strong, and this resulted in low loan impairments," he said.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen. Editing by Stine Jacobsen and Barbara Lewis)
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