Good morning, everyone, and welcome to NOBA and our presentation of the second quarter. This is Björn Lander speaking.

I'm here today together with Pontus Sardal. Starting with some quarterly highlights.

We delivered a very strong second quarter result, and I'm very pleased to see the development throughout the quarter. We achieved solid progress across a number of important key areas.

Net interest income increased significantly and recovered from the adverse timing effect we saw in the first quarter. NII is up 16% compared to the first quarter this year and up 10% compared to the same quarter last year.

We delivered a strong operating profit, actually one of the best quarters ever. If you adjust for the result from financial transaction, this is the best operating result ever for the bank.

If you look at the returns, we continue to deliver strong returns with a return on tangible equity of 21% rolling 12 months and 28% in the quarter. Credit losses remain stable at around 27 bps.

What's actually very good to see in the second quarter is that our Stage 2 loan decreased by more than 20% compared to the first quarter. Our CET1 ratio, that came down a bit after the Q1 following the acquisition of Uno, progressed well and strengthened by approximately 1 percentage point in the quarter.

Now we are operating just below the targeted level of 200 to 300 basis points above the regulatory requirement. Very good to see the progress in terms of capital.

During the quarter, we issued two senior unsecured bonds, one in SEK and one in NOK, at attractive funding spreads, further strengthening our balance sheet and supporting future growth. Housing markets, however, remained subdued.

Growth was softer during the quarter, but on the other hand, our net interest margin rebounded to 4.2%. To summarize, it was a strong quarter that highlights the resilience, disciplined execution, and continued progress across a number of key areas.

If you look at the market, starting overall, as I said, the Nordic housing market remained subdued, and both the macroeconomic environment and consumer confidence continue to be marked by uncertainty, I would say driven largely by ongoing geopolitical conflicts and broader economic headwinds. However, we delivered a lending growth of 8% unadjusted and 6.2% then if we adjust for FX.

Sweden lending grew by 3.2%, reflecting a market that remains cautious, but where we have seen some improvements in the sentiment towards the end of the quarter. House prices increased slightly during the quarter, and we have seen somewhat better activity in the market.

We think that Sweden are at the bottom of the cycle, and we are more optimistic about the second half of the year. If you look at the Norwegian market, we grew by 9% LTM.

It has been a little bit more challenging environment in 2026, I would say driven by higher interest rates and persistent inflationary pressure. House prices went up slightly, but the number of transactions during the second quarter went down significantly compared to the first quarter.

Norges Bank, they increased the central rate to 4.25 in the middle of the quarter, and they also signaled another possible rate hike during the fall. That's obviously not positive for the market as such.

If you look at Finland, they continue to perform very strong. They delivered a 44% lending growth and a record financial result in the quarter, highlighting both the strength of our business in Finland as well as the benefits of a diversified Nordic platform.

The Finnish housing market showed signs of recovery during the quarter with somewhat higher activity and modestly rising prices. The positive trend was primarily driven by larger cities, while households continue to be marked by caution and uncertainty.

We expect market conditions to remain challenging, but we do think the second half will be better than the first half of 2026. With that said, we will continue to prioritize profitable growth over volume growth short-term.

We know that we are well-positioned for the next phase of the cycle. As market and sentiment gradually recover, we are also ready to accelerate growth.

By that, I hand over to Pontus.

Thank you, Björn. Let's go through the financials.

Again, we posted a very strong Q2 result of 173 million adjusted profit, which is up 53% quarter-on-quarter and 5% year-on-year. As mentioned, NII, net interest income, recovered from the negative timing effects that we saw in the first quarter, and in addition to that, it also benefited from a stronger Norwegian krone during the second quarter.

Consequently, the net interest margin improved materially to 4.2% from the low point in the first quarter. Commission income is materially strengthened, up 110% quarter-on-quarter, which is an effect of being the first quarter where both the loan brokers, i.e., Uno Finans and Eiendomsfinans, are consolidated on a line-by-line basis.

Other items on the revenue line is net financial transactions. They also rebounded from negative outcome on mark-to-market in the first quarter to positive in the second quarter.

That was a function of rate movements and mark-to-market gains on the liquidity portfolio. Then operating expenses increase quarter-on-quarter, which is to the fully extent a function of, again, consolidating loan brokers on a line-by-line basis.

Adjusting for that, underlying opex remained flat to the first quarter. Having then had a strong, rebound on the net interest income and a flat cost development, that improved the adjusted cost-income ratio to 46%.

Credit losses amounted to 22 million in the first quarter, which is flat to quarter-on-quarter if considering the one-off write-off, you can say, from the Bank2 portfolio in the first quarter, and LTM credit loss level was 27 basis points. Let's talk about the rebound or the improvement in net interest income following the weak outcome in the first quarter due to timing.

Firstly, the timing effects that we had in the first quarter, they stem from calendar days, rate changes on lending and deposits, as well as resets on capital market instruments, both bonds as well as derivatives. They have reverted, as we expected, in the second quarter, which adds circa 30 basis points to the net interest margin, i.e., taking it from 3.70 to around 4%.

In addition to that, we also had a stronger NOK on average during the quarter, which adds also material to net interest income. It doesn't add much to the net interest margin, but purely some more artificial circa 5 basis points, which is a function of the balance sheet and the P&L being translated at different rates.

Then, in addition to that, we've had favorable timing, we believe, in the second quarter, which stems from being able to run with slightly tighter liquidity management as we haven't had any bond maturities, we haven't had, as we had in the first quarter, the completion of the Uno acquisition, etc., and we have also been able to successfully refinance in the later part of the quarter. This has allowed us to let that deposit flow out, the share of deposit funding has come down during the quarter.

Though we estimate that there are elements in this that are favorable in terms of the net interest margin, and we expect it to contract somewhat as we go forward in the near term and kind of return to around 400 basis points margin. Let's go through the markets.

Firstly, Sweden, adjusted operating profit was 47 million, which increased quarter-on-quarter, but declined year-on-year as the second quarter last year was positively impacted by both a stronger net interest income as well as credit losses were positive due to a credit loss provision model update that was implemented same period last year. The net interest income improved as expected during the quarter from the negative timing effects, and net interest margin bounced back to 3.8%.

Last year, net interest income as well as the margin were strong due to favorable spreads between SEK and NOK, where we're lending money from Sweden and that we could deploy in Norway, and that provided a strong spread. Those have now over the last 12 months, they have normalized, and that impacts and contracts net interest margin both for Sweden as well as for the group.

Operating expenses remained stable quarter-on-quarter and decreased somewhat year-on-year. Credit losses, they were in line with the first quarter.

Last year, as mentioned, was impacted by release of provisions due to model updates and were posted positively. We continue to see Stage migrations trend positive, where both Stage 3 loans as well as Stage 2 loans continue down.

The credit loss ratio was 24 basis points, and same period last year zero, but again, that was due to the impact of the model update. If we continue with Norway then, adjusted operating profit increased quarter-on-quarter as well as year-on-year to 123 million SEK.

Also here, net interest income rebounded from the Q1 negative timing effect and was then further improved by the stronger Norwegian krone. Growth in lending has been supportive on the net interest income year-on-year, whereas lending remained flat quarter-on-quarter.

This effect obviously were also very supportive to the net interest margin improving to 4.2%, but again, as mentioned previously, we expect net interest margin to contract somewhat in the near term and mean-revert towards the 400 basis points. Obviously, the currency effects and the timing effects, they weigh slightly heavier or slightly more on the Norwegian business.

Operating expenses in Norway remained stable, and thus the cost-income ratio improved further in the second quarter. Credit losses were 10.9 million, and the credit loss ratio LTM was 27 basis points, both are slightly down if we compare with previous quarter as well as year-on-year.

In Norway, Stage 3 loans remained flat to previous quarter, whereas we saw Stage 2 loans reducing as a function of effective collection efforts during the quarter. Then we go to Finland.

Finland delivered yet another quarter in black and a record result of 9.4 million, which is a substantial improvement from the first quarter. NII continued to benefit from strong growth in lending, up 44% year-on-year and 10% quarter-on-quarter, and a stable net interest margin around 5%.

Operating expenses benefited from slightly lower marketing cost in the quarter, but remained broadly flat year-on-year. We continue to see scalability play out as we expect, and the cost-income ratio thus is reduced further down to 61% in the second quarter.

Credit losses are down quarter-on-quarter as well as year-on-year due to favorable Stage migrations. Again, similar here, last year we had a slightly negative impact in the credit loss line relating to model updates.

Then on the last segment, the loan brokers. Again, this is the first quarter where both of the loan brokers are consolidated on a line-by-line basis, and the operating profit for the segment came in at 14.5 million, which is equivalent to an operating margin of 16%.

Previous periods have not been restated, they're not fully comparable as Uno has not been consolidated line-by-line, but rather included as an associate holding of the 49%. The operating profit remains broadly on the same level as in the first quarter.

Market uncertainty, as mentioned previously, and rate hikes in Norway, inflationary pressures, in combination with fewer working days during the second quarter has weighed it slightly negative on commission income in the quarter, and that's the reason broadly why the operating profits has remained on similar level as in the first quarter. Generally, we are expecting to see a seasonally stronger second half of the year.

With that, we move on to credit losses. Net credit losses, again, decreased to 22 million compared to the first quarter, where the first quarter included 4 million in net loss from the Bank2 run-off portfolio.

This has also impacted the write-offs as well as the release of provisions in a positive way, where write-offs are reduced as well as the opposite effect on change in provisions then. Again, Stage 3 loans came down to 7% compared to 7.2% for the first quarter, which is driven by write-offs as well as favorable Stage migrations in Sweden and Finland.

Stage 2 loans moved down materially, was down 2 percentage points, where effective collection activities in combination with tax refunds during the quarter have contributed favorable to the migrations. Then on the funding side, as mentioned, deposit funding was decreased during the second quarter following an elevated liquidity level in the first quarter to facilitate for both the acquisition of Uno Finans as well as the bond maturity during the first quarter.

The bond financing has now been completed, where we successfully issued 850 million SEK and 400 million NOK, which has allowed us to reduce the deposit volumes during the quarter. All the regulatory ratios, they still remain comfortable above requirements, and there are no changes or updates on the rating side.

Then finally, the capital position. As mentioned, the CET1 ratio improved materially in the quarter, up to 13.9%, which moved us much closer to the targeted level of 200 to 300 basis points above the regulatory requirement.

It is now 179 basis points above. This is obviously driven by, one, strong results during the quarter, as well as somewhat subdued lending, the REA expansion hasn't been that much.

In addition to this, we were benefiting from the recently received SREP decision, where SFSA has lowered the Pillar 2 requirement by 24 basis points on the total capital ratio. Thus, we are well on track to restore the capital ratios following the temporary dip that we saw in connection with the acquisition of Uno, and we are confident to reach the target level as well as continue to obviously commit to the dividend policy in place.

With that, I hand back the word to Björn.

Thank you, Pontus. To summarize, again, we delivered a very strong second quarter result with strengthened net interest income and improved returns.

I'm very happy to see that we have achieved solid progress across a number of key areas, as Pontus went through. Markets remained subdued, but our focus on, I would say, disciplined lending and profitable growth delivered good results.

Net interest margin came up to strong 4.2%. A strong credit quality, continued progress towards our CET1 target, operating just below the targeted level now of 200 to 300 basis points.

Then, again, we expect market conditions to remain challenging, but we think the second half of the year will be better than the first half, and we have a strong platform to continue to grow thanks to a strong funding and a strong net interest margin on the back book. By that, we open up the line for questions.

Good morning. Can you hear me?

Yes. Good morning.

Perfect. Yes.

Good morning. A few questions from my side.

You were quite clear there on the margin, that it should contract somewhat towards 4% the coming quarters, and that is including then the rate changes that you have made in the second quarter, which I would assume would had some spillover effect into Q3. Is that correctly understood?

That's correct, Patrik. It includes the rate changes that were implemented.

I think similar to what we saw in the first quarter, where you had, following the, conflict in the Middle East, where you had sharp rate hikes, you had the NOK strengthening, etc., I think what we've seen now is that there's an element of favorable timing. We have benefited, to some extent, to the higher NOK rates, and we have benefited from tighter liquidity management.

I think, yet, there is, repricing on deposits and lending to happen in the third quarter. I think that's the driver for the NIM contracting again back towards the 4%.

That's what we believe right now.

Thank you. Then the other driver of net interest income would then be the loan book development.

It was flat in the quarter, but you sound optimistic about the second half. You're a little bit below your target level when you FX adjust.

Could you talk a little bit about the drivers why you're optimistic about the second half and what is an reasonable assumption here the coming quarters in terms of loan growth?

Good question. I think we see signs of recovery, especially in the Swedish market.

As I said, number of transactions are picking up slowly, but still, it's going in the right direction. Prices also went up slightly in the second quarter.

There are signs of improvement. We believe the Swedish market will be stronger in the second half.

Finland, as said, continued to perform very strong despite subdued markets. Norway, there has been a, weakened market in the second quarter.

Rates was increased by central bank, as 25 bps in the middle of the quarter. It's been more uncertain when it comes to Norway.

We think there is still a strong economy, low unemployment, we believe that the Norwegian market will hold up and be also relatively strong in the second half. That's our, view at the moment.

If you look at the growth for the first half, we believe that we will see a stronger overall lending growth in the second half of this year compared to the first half.

Thank you. Is that including or excluding the FX tailwind from Q1?

No, adjusted for FX, if you look in local currencies, we believe we should see a, better growth in the second half compared to the first half.

Thank you. In terms of costs, we saw last year and the year before that you have seasonally lower cost in Q3 compared to Q2.

Now we have some integration with Uno Finans, etc. Could you help us in our modeling here to talk a little bit what's a reasonable expectation in terms of cost development both for Q3 and Q4 in terms of seasonality there, where it's usually a little bit lower in Q3 and then comes up?

How should we think about that seasonality under the cost line now when Uno is fully integrated? No, I think,

like last year, there shouldn't be a big, seasonality swing. There are a few elements around holiday periods, some release of holiday provisions, etc., that will affect slightly positive in the third quarter.

Generally, we see higher costs and higher activity in the fourth quarter. These are, in relative terms, small numbers, and I think that's the way you should think of the current run rate, maybe slightly favorable Q3, maybe up a little bit in the fourth quarter then.

Okay. No major deviation compared to the cost base we're seeing here in the second quarter, is that correct?

No, that's correct. I think now the cost base is, fully including, again, the loan brokers.

There isn't any additional impact, as such, from that in the third quarter to expect then.

Thank you. Then my last question is on that topic of the loan broker.

You highlighted that an operating margin of 16%, but at the same time, you flagged a little bit that second half is seasonally higher than what we have seen here. Can you talk a little bit about seasonality in loan brokers, what we should expect here given that this is quite of a new segment for you, and we don't really have the history, from a modeling perspective, it's a little bit of a challenge?

Can you help us out a little bit of Q3, Q4 seasonality, what do you think is reasonable to assume here? Yeah.

Firstly, like mentioned, the second half of the year, that's what we experience. Especially when it comes to Uno Finans, has always been a stronger quarter in terms of commission income and activity.

I think we expect that to be the case now as well. I think as we communicated earlier also, where we've said that we believe the, the run rate of the loan brokers is some 7 to 10 per annum, I think we said that in the first quarter, I think that's a reasonable expectations going forward.

We should see some, benefit from the levels where we're currently operating in the second quarter. That's how one should translate, Q2 into the second half of the year.

Could you remind me again why it's seasonally stronger in the second half compared to the first half for loan brokers?

Like mentioned, this period, the second quarter, contains quite a lot of holiday period, there's less working days, less activities. The Norwegians are celebrating [Syttende Mai?]

, etc. I think then, Q3, Q4, people are back from holiday, etc.

Generally, maybe the demand you could say for, for loan consolidation, etc., is generally higher in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. I think that's the prime reason.

Are you any worried that potentially another rate hike in Norway could dampen this seasonality effect?

Like Björn mentioned also, I think there is clearly the uncertainty in Norway generally. I think we will know in August if there's going to be another rate hike.

Inflation numbers were slightly positive in the latest release, but clearly, that, of course, could dampen demand to some extent.

Thank you. That was all for me.

Thanks.

Hi, guys. Double-clicking on Sweden, even though, Björn, you're mentioning that you're sort of at the trough period here in terms of lending growth, but still, you're having positive reversals on credit losses.

Can you expand the rationale why not move a bit further out on the risk scale to capture more of the market? Because, as you're guiding for even with a 400 bps margin, the current credit losses or even a few bps higher is still at attractive levels.

Good questions. I think we will continue to be very disciplined in the way we operate and underwrite new loans.

Of course, one could think that you can get more volumes by either dropping margins or taking up more risks. That's not the way we would like to operate.

I think we are keen to stay disciplined, and once market becomes stronger, we are well-positioned to accelerate thanks to good funding, good scalability, and thanks to a very high net interest margin. I think the starting position now is very good.

I think we are not willing to, increase risk or drop margins from now at least.

Okay. There were some notable changes in amortization requirements and probably most importantly LTV caps in Sweden.

Could you give any figure in terms of effect you've seen from these? Because I guess that has sort of been a positive mitigating factor against the muted market in I guess primarily April.

How does those two effects sort of net out?

Exactly. That's also a good question.

I think it's a little bit too early to draw too big conclusions. It's been just a couple of months since this new regulatory changes came into force.

What we have seen is there is a clear much higher demand on the purchase side driven by a higher, LTV on the purchase up to 90%. I'm pretty sure that that will come through also in the numbers and in the lending of new mortgages in Sweden.

On the other hand, the early signs when it comes to the, reducing LTV on remortgage to 80%, that is negative for us. I don't think this was the intention from the government that, exclude the consolidation option for consumers.

Far, I think it has been a negative tilt on that part. Maybe that is neutral.

If take the positive sign on the purchase and then the negative on remor, I think that will come out neutral. That's where we are right now at least.

I think we need to give it some more time. Let's come back on that after the next quarter.

That makes sense. Given these changes, you also launched a new product announced in the last quarter.

How is that playing out? I guess, finally, if the increased cap in terms of just 80% LTV cap on refi, if that pursues as I guess a sort of a wet blanket on that, would you consider adjusting your profile mix towards being more aggressive on new lending, or for how long will that need to subdue until you would do a strategic re-consideration there?

Good question. I think it's too early.

I think we need to give it some more time and get more data to see what happens in the market. As you said, we launched, a new product, Bolån+ that should mitigate part of this, effect we see now from reduced LTV on remor.

Hopefully, we can see a good development of that, relatively small product, but still important. Again, so far, we launched the product just a couple of months ago, and we have seen some sales coming from that part.

We have to give it a little bit more time.

Fair enough. Thanks, guys.

Thank you.

Hi, good morning. A couple of questions on CET1 capital.

When would you expect to be on the upper end of your guidance in terms of the capital buffer? The strong CET1 development now seems to be driven partially by low lending growth, low REA expansion.

If lending growth picks up, the capital build ought to slow down compared to what we just saw. Can you just elaborate on that, please?

Yeah. Like mentioned, obviously, the profit was strong in the second quarter, which contributed well to the capital ratio, but again, somewhat subdued lending and the REA expansion.

I think we believe that, again, we're going to be steering into the target level, but not to the upper end. I think one should expect us to be on the lower end in the target range and for the reasons you highlight.

Both the combination of growth and obviously having a dividend policy there as well. I think you should expect, the level to be just on the lower band of the range at year-end.

Thank you. I think most of my questions have been answered, but I'd still like just a bit more flavor on lending growth.

At the end of the quarter in Sweden, we saw some change in momentum if I understand correctly, but quarter-on-quarter, Swedish lending growth was still quite muted, or -1% even. How large is the increased momentum is what I'm trying to get at?

Is it just a weak increase, or are you seeing clear improvement on all gears, to speak? Oh,

it's hard to say. I think what we have seen throughout the quarter is that demand is picking up.

I think one should think that we should continue to see a slow, positive development. Again, there are uncertainty around us as you all know, and that impacts the consumer confidence and, of course, housing markets.

We have seen signs of recovery, I think we should see, a slow, positive development into the third quarter and then hopefully then continue to pick up a little bit more in the fourth quarter. That's our view at the moment.

Perfect. That's all for me.

Thank you.

Thank you all for dialing in today. We wish you a great summer, and we see you in conjunction with the third quarter.

Thanks for now.