Sparebanken Nord-Norge, SNN | Key figures for Sparebanken

This is NOK 13 million higher than in the same quarter in 2023, the company writes in a press release on Wednesday morning.

– What I am most satisfied with in the first quarter is that we are growing, while at the same time managing to reduce our costs. The costs are 105 million lower than in the fourth quarter of 2023. Otherwise, the picture is fairly similar to what we have seen in recent years. The North Norwegian business community is generally doing well. The bankruptcy figures are low and so are the unemployment figures. All in all, this probably affects our results positively, says CEO Hanne Karoline Kræmer.

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Increased loss to fraud

The bank can show growth in both the retail and corporate markets, and still has low losses.

– We lose little money in the credit business, but have increased losses as a result of fraud. The losses occur when customers give up passwords and codes, thus fraudsters can drain their accounts. The new Financial Agreements Act means that the banks must compensate most of what the customer is defrauded. It is difficult to curb this without simultaneously removing some of the functions in online and mobile banking. These are services our customers have become accustomed to using, and it is difficult to take away parts of them. Fraud is a challenging area, and something we work tirelessly to combat, says Kræmer.

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Bets south

The press release also states that the bank will focus on customers outside the region.

– We see that the traditional market areas are being watered out. This is because most things today can be solved digitally, which blurs geographical boundaries. We constantly have inquiries from people who are going to buy homes further south in the country, who want to use us as a bank. These are both expatriate northerners and people with no connection to northern Norway. Sparebanken Nord-Norge has competitive conditions, and we attract particular attention to green loans. We have therefore established a separate team to serve customers outside the region. In this way, we can achieve profitable growth, without having to establish physical offices in the south, says Kræmer.