The bank recently named a new CEO. And like so many of its peers, its heavy provisions a year ago to cope with the pandemic have fallen dramatically as vaccines have been rolled out.

Danske Bank, which recently announced a change of CEO, yesterday reported its net profit for the first three months of 2021. They stood at DKK3.1 billion ($504 million), bouncing sharply back from a year before (DKK1.3 billion loss). Rising income and a big drop in loss provisions explained much of the change.

A year ago, the Copenhagen-listed bank, which provides wealth management among its offerings, reported DKK4.3 billion in impairments; a year later, they fell to DKK500 million.

The banking group said it had a Common Equity Tier 1 ratio of 18.1 per cent at the end of March this year, up from 17.5 per cent a year before.

“We have seen our business deliver good growth in many of our Nordic markets in the first quarter on the back of solid customer activity. While net interest income was impacted by margin pressure, our capital markets platform also ensured a positive development in both fee and trading income. With commercial momentum, cost measures having a tangible effect and strong credit quality, we are well positioned to deliver on our financial targets for the year,” Stephan Engels, chief financial officer at Danske Bank, said. 

A few days ago, Danske Bank announced that its chief executive, Chris Vogelzang, had resigned. He was appointed in 2019 to take over from a predecessor who had left amidst a Baltic region money laundering scandal. A former senior executive at ABN AMRO, Vogelzang has been named by Dutch authorities as a suspect in connection with a probe of potential breaches of Dutch AML laws. Copenhagen-based Danske has hired Carsten Egeriis as its new CEO.