In the severe economic environment characterized by a sharp decline of
the
country's gross domestic product, increased number of corporate
bankruptcies
that negatively affected labor market and disposable household
incomes, AB DnB
NORD Bankas, company code 112029270, VAT payer code
LT120292716, registered
office at J. Basanavičiaus St. 26, Vilnius, the data
about the company is
collected and stored at the Register of Legal Entities
earned a pre-tax
operating profit before provisions of LTL 253.3 million (EUR
73.4 million) in
full year 2009, according to preliminary data calculated in
accordance to
International Financial Reporting Standards. With customer risks
remaining high
throughout the year, AB DnB NORD Bankas pursued conservative
risk valuation
policy and set aside LTL 684.7 million (EUR 198.3 million) in
special
provisions in 2009. As a result AB DnB NORD Bankas recorded a LTL
382.6 million
(EUR 110.8 million) net loss in full year 2009. 

AB DnB NORD
Bankas pre-tax operating profit before provisions was LTL 179
million  (EUR
51,8 million) in 2008 and its net profit was LTL 70.7 million
(EUR 20.5
million) in that period.
 
To ensure balanced performance of the bank in the
adverse economic environment,
AB DnB NORD Bankas share capital has been
increased to LTL 656.7 million ( EUR
190.2 million) and the bank's largest
shareholder Bank DnB NORD A/S invested
LTL 189.9 million ( EUR 55 million) to
the bank's reserve capital in 2009. AB
DnB NORD Bankas met all prudential
requirements of Bank of Lithuania and
maintained sound capital and liquidity
positions throughout 2009. 

“With customer risks remaining high due to
severe economic contraction we
concentrated on credit risk management
establishing the structures and
processes needed to minimize the risks and
intense credit monitoring and
restructuring efforts brought about some
stabilization in the bank's mortgage
credit and leasing portfolios. The focus
on operating efficiency through
streamlining measures, strict cost control and
the ability to exploit emerging
business opportunities in the
recession-stricken economy helped us to sustain
growing income trend that
eased the negative impact of the increased risk costs
on the full year 2009
result. I am particularly pleased that our efforts to
continue building up
long-term relationships resulted in sustained growth of
number of the
individual and corporate customers who increasingly choose us as
their home
bank,” said Werner Schilli, president and the chairman of the
management board
of AB DnB NORD Bankas. 

Supported by particularly strong commission income
from intermediation in
trading with securities and derivatives and foreign
currency, AB DnB NORD
Bankas total income rose 15.9 percent year-on-year to
LTL 431.4 million (EUR
124.9 million) in 2009. Through streamlining measures
the bank's operating
expenses were reduced 10.0 percent year-on-year to LTL
161.0 (EUR 46.4 million)
million. The constant focus on operating efficiency
and productivity resulted
in a cost/income ratio of 38.9 percent,the bank's
best ever so far. 

In 2009 AB DnB NORD Bankas signed LTL 969 million (EUR
280.6 million) worth of
new loan agreements, however with credit demand
declining and a smaller number
of projects that met credit risk criteria in
the adverse economic environment,
the bank's individual customer net loan
portfolio decreased 7.0 percent
year-on-year to LTL 4.8 billion (EUR 1.4
billion) while the net loan portfolio
to legal entities decreased 9.6 percent
year-on-year to LTL 5.5 billion (EUR
1.6 billion). 

Customers' savings and
investments at AB DnB NORD Bankas stood at LTL 4.2
billion ( EUR 1.2 billion)
as at the end of December 2009, of which issued debt
securities amounted to
LTL 0.8 billion ( EUR 0.23 billion) and customers'
deposits made LTL 3.4 ( EUR
0.98 billion) billion as the Bank offered an
attractive investment option to
institutional and private investors placing
fixed rate one year government
bonds worth LTL 1.11 billion (EUR 322.4 million)
at par on the secondary
market during the year. 

The number of AB DnB NORD Bankas customers rose by
47 thousand in 2009 and the
bank provided comprehensive range of financial
services to 671 thousand
individual and corporate customers as at the end of
December. To ensure
appropriate service level AB DnB NORD Bankas measured the
fulfillment of its
Customer Service and Sales Standards and the delivery of
the newly introduced
Financial Guide client promise with the latest Mystery
Shopping Survey carried
out in December 2009 recording the bank achieved its
best result so far also
topping the strategic target for the year. 

Andrius
Vilkancas,
press officer
tel. +370 5 239 3413