Swedbank is now the first out of the major banks to warn of financial consequences related to the corona pandemic. Credit losses of SEK 2.2 billion are a tenfold increase compared to the same period last year. According to the bank's IR chief Gregori Karamouzis, it is almost exclusively linked to companies and not private customers.

- This is a reservation regarding potential losses and an initial assessment. It is really only the month of March that has been affected by the corona crisis and it is still early but at the same time it has gone very fast, he tells TT.

The prevailing uncertainty about the consequences of the corona pandemic and how far these are going to mean that Swedbank cannot make a complete assessment at the individual level.

Connected to the oil

Therefore, general provisions have been made, with the exception being oil-related exposures where individual commitments have been made for approximately SEK 0.8 billion.

- We have worked with these exposures for a long time and the oil sector has been in focus for a long time. In many other sectors, it has not been possible to make an assessment and there we have had to do a portfolio analysis, ”says Karamouzis.

-We will make new assessments almost daily on this coming quarter. During the second quarter, some of these portfolio reserves will be converted to individual reserves.

Substantial increase

At the same time, the bank's costs for managing shortcomings in money laundering in the Baltic countries are growing. On top of the sanction charge from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) of SEK 4 billion, the costs for the bank's investigations and other measures related to money laundering are now estimated at SEK 1.55 billion. This is an increase of 750 million compared to the previous calculation.