Luminor Bank AS today publishes its interim report for the second quarter of 2021. The bank boosted its business performance and increased net profits as compared to the same quarter last year.

New sales volumes in mortgages were up by almost three times in the second quarter compared to the previous year, while loans to business customers grew during the quarter. Luminor continued to play a pivotal role in developing the Baltic capital markets including leading the first international bond from the real estate sector. In addition, Luminor launched ESG funds to clients of its pensions business.

The bank deepened its relationship with IBM to support its IT capability and signed a contract with Worldline to manage its ATM network. These partnerships will accelerate Luminor's development and improve further its customer service.

Net profit increased to 21.5 million EUR compared with 13.5 million EUR in the same quarter last year. This improvement was driven principally by a reversal of credit loss allowances and resulted in an improved return on equity of 5.1%, as compared to 3.3% in the second quarter of 2020. Luminor has a CET1 ratio of 23.1%, as compared to its target Total Capital Ratio of 17%.  In July, the ECB published the results of their Comprehensive Assessment which confirmed the bank's resilience, robust asset quality and capitalisation.
 
Luminor Bank CEO, Peter Bosek, said:

"The second quarter saw the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions across the Baltic countries which was a welcome development for our customers and the societies we serve. Although we still have substantial work ahead of us, I am encouraged by our progress in the second quarter in realising our strategy, which we made thanks to the diligence and dedicated work of our employees. In particular, I'm pleased with our role in advancing the Baltic capital markets, as well as positive developments in new sales volumes in mortgages and growth in loans to business customers.”

 
Luminor is the leading independent bank in the Baltics and the third-largest provider of financial services in our region, with some 870 000 clients and 2 300 employees. We serve the financial needs of individuals, families, and companies. Just like our home markets of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania we are young, dynamic, and forward looking. Luminor has total shareholders’ equity of 1.7 billion EUR and a CET1 ratio of 23.1%.
 
Luminor’s second quarter report can be found here.