Swedbank AB (publ) reported fourth-quarter 2017 profit attributable to shareholders of the bank of 4.74 billion Swedish kronor, up from 4.14 billion kronor a year earlier.
EPS improved to 4.23 kronor in the period from 3.70 kronor in the year-ago quarter. The S&P Capital IQ consensus estimate for normalized EPS was 4.14 kronor.
Return on equity reached 14.4% in the fourth quarter of 2017, up year over year from 13.1%.
Net interest income increased on a yearly basis to 6.33 billion kronor from 6.00 billion kronor. Net commission income also rose, to 3.29 billion kronor from 3.06 billion kronor in the fourth quarter of 2016.
Swedbank recorded credit impairments of 311 million kronor for the fourth quarter of 2017, down from the year-ago 593 million kronor.
For full year 2017, the bank reported attributable profit of 19.35 billion kronor, down 1% from 19.54 billion kronor in 2016.
The lender's common equity Tier 1 capital ratio stood at 24.6% at 2017-end, compared to 23.9% at the end of September 2017 and 25.0% at 2016-end. The liquidity coverage ratio was 173% at the end of 2017, compared to 145% three months earlier and 156% at 2016-end.
Swedbank's board of directors proposed a dividend of 13.00 kronor per share for 2017, compared to 13.20 kronor per share a year ago.
"Our capital position was further strengthened in the quarter," CEO Birgitte Bonnesen said. "Together with our stable profitability, this enabled the board of directors to propose for the sixth consecutive year that 75% of profit for the year be distributed to shareholders."
The dividend is expected to be paid to shareholders March 29, pending approval at the company's March 22 annual general meeting.
The bank also intends to accelerate the pace of its investment in digitalization and automation and will make organizational changes as part of the plan.
"In the payments area we will utilize the PayEx platform we acquired to further improve our e-commerce offering," Bonnesen said. "Our virtual assistant Nina and robots will be further developed so that they can be used more broadly in our operations, with the aim of further improving process efficiencies and increasing customer value."
As of Feb. 5, US$1 was equivalent to 7.93 Swedish kronor.
