Luminor Bank AS today publishes its interim report for the first quarter of 2021. The bank has embarked on the next stage of its strategy focusing on its customers and business growth.

Net profit in the first quarter improved to 5.8 million EUR due principally to a reduction of 27.9 million EUR in provisions for credit impairments. This is a significant improvement from Q1 2020 which recorded a loss of 21.2 million EUR due to the impact of COVID-19. The share of non-performing loans reduced further to 3.1% of gross loans.

Luminor’s priorities for the new stage of its strategy are to increase customer satisfaction, to grow lending, notably in mortgages and to SME customers, and to raise the level of digitisation and automation, while fulfilling its wider obligations to its communities and the environment.

Luminor made progress on achieving these goals in Q1 2021, increasing its market share in the competitive mortgage market with new lending of 175 million EUR during the quarter, compared with 92 million EUR in Q1 2020, leading to total mortgage balances of 4.6 billion EUR at 31 March 2021. Luminor was also at the heart of two important developments in Baltic capital markets – it launched a fund for SME customers and arranged the first commercial paper programme in the region. In addition, Luminor signed a 5-year agreement with IBM which will help to accelerate its digital transformation.

Luminor Bank CEO, Peter Bosek, said:

“We are focused on delivering the next stage of our strategy which includes increasing customer satisfaction, lending, and digitisation. We have substantial work ahead of us to realise these goals, but I am encouraged by the early signs of progress in the first quarter of 2021.”

“The effects of COVID-19 impacted the welfare of our customers, staff, and the Baltic societies we serve throughout the quarter. Despite this, we maintained our customer service standards, made progress with the next phase of our strategy, and improved our financial performance, with a return to profit as compared to this time last year. I am enormously proud of how well my colleagues performed during this difficult period.”

“The Baltic economies have proven resilient through the pandemic. As the risks from COVID- 19 diminish I look forward to Luminor doing more business with individuals and businesses across our home markets of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.”