Danske Falls Into Loss As Expected Impairments Bite

Tom Burroughes

19 May 2020

, the Copenhagen-listed group, yesterday announced that it had slumped into a net loss of DKK1.289 billion ($187 million) in the first three months of this year. This was against a profit of DKK2.988 billion, as it put aside a far higher sum than expected for impairment charges because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Total income fell only slightly, however, to DKK9.606 billion versus DKK10.8 billion, it said.

Loan impairment charges surged to DKK4.251 billion from DKK357 million a year earlier.

Within Danke’s wealth management business, pre-tax profit was DKK200 million, sliding by 70 per cent from the level in the first quarter of 2019. Net fee income and net trading income were significantly impacted by the negative developments on the financial markets due to the coronavirus pandemic, leading to negative net trading income, including a negative investment return in the health and accident business, and a drop in assets under management of 12 per cent. AuM stood at DKK1.428 billion.

A few weeks ago the bank flagged that it expected the global pandemic to hit its figures.

Change
The bank also announced yesterday that Jacob Aarup-Andersen, head of Banking DK – the Danish business - and a member of the executive leadership team, is leaving Danske Bank to take up a new position outside of the bank.

Aarup-Andersen has been employed with Danske Bank since 2012 and had been a member of the executive leadership team since 2016.

As of yesterday, Glenn Söderholm, head of Banking Nordic and executive leadership team member, has taken interim responsibility for the banking activities in Denmark.

The past decade has been a troubled one for the group. Danske has replaced its chief executive and made a number of other changes in the wake of a money laundering episode centred on the Baltic state of Estonia. The affair snowballed into a broader European money laundering saga, raising calls for tougher AML controls across the European Union.

In May last year the lender appointed former ABN AMRO senior figure Chris Vogelzang as its new chief executive. He took over from interim CEO Jesper Nielsen who had held the position after the resignation of Thomas F Borgen in 2018.