Danske Bank A/S (DNSKF) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to the conference call for Danske Bank's financial results for the first quarter of 2026. My name is Klaus-Inge Jensen, and I'm head of Danske Bank's investor relations. With me today, I have CEO, Carsten Nyhrys, and our CFO, Cecile Hillary. The presentation today will be extended, as it will include an update on our Forward 28 strategy. We aim to keep this presentation at around 35 minutes. After the presentation, we will open up for a Q&A session as usual. And afterwards, feel free to contact the IR department if you have any more questions. I will now hand over to Carsten. Slide two, please. Yeah, thank you, Klaus. And I would also like to welcome you to our conference call where I'm pleased to share the highlights of Danske Bank's financial results for Q1 and present an update on our 420 strategy. Let me start with the key messages for the quarter. So we've had a solid start to 2026, driven by clear commercial momentum across our focus areas and supported by a constructive Nordic operating environment, despite the market volatility that we've seen. On the numbers, net profit was $5.7 billion, and this corresponds to a 13.1% return on equity. And our cost income ratio was 45.8%, broadly in line with our around 45% 2026 target. Activity levels were strong. Total lending grew around 4% year on year, supporting market share gains across the Nordics. And we delivered around $6 billion of debt inflows in asset management in the first quarter of 2026. And then for the remaining two years of our 4-28 strategy period, we're raising our financial ambitions. So for 2028, we target a return on equity above 14.5%, total income around $63 billion, and cost-income ratio no greater than 43%, with a new CET1 capital ratio target of around 16%. And ...