Danske Bank today reported its nine-month pretax profit rose 11 per cent on higher interest income due to brisk lending growth and higher interest rates.
It reported pretax profit of 15.1 billion Danish crowns (€2.025 billion) compared with the average forecast of 14.8 billion crowns and 13.6 billion crowns in the same period last year.
Including Finland's Sampo Bank - which Danske acquired earlier this year from Sampo for 30.1 billion crowns - the proforma pre-tax profit for the first nine months of 2006 was 15.5 billion crowns.
Danske said its net interest income rose 10 per cent to 18 billion crowns, while net fee income rose 1 per cent to 6.6 billion. Net trading income rose 10 per cent to 6.2 billion crowns.
The Danish bank kept its profit outlook for the full year.
"Our income is robust, despite the turbulence in the credit and liquidity markets," Danske Chief Executive Peter Straarup said. "This is due not least to the broad geographic diversification of the group's activities and to the increasing profitability of our international banking operations."
Nordic banks have avoided the troubled mortgage market in the United States and related debt instruments that have hurt banks worldwide.