Resurs Bank Interim Report January–June 2018

“We are continuing to grow faster than the market in all countries. We are also growing profitably; operating profit for the half-year increased 10 per cent to SEK 693 million.” Kenneth Nilsson, CEO Resurs Bank AB

1 January—30 June 2018*

• Lending to the public rose 19% to SEK 26,626 million
• Operating income increased 12% to SEK 1,601 million
• Operating profit increased 10% to SEK 693 million
• C/I before credit losses was 40.7% (41.6%)
• The credit loss ratio was 2.0% (1.8%)

Statement by the CEO

2018 began with another successful half-year. Lending rose 19 per cent to SEK 26.6 billion. Growth was strong in both our segments and in all geographic markets. We are continuing to grow faster than the market in all countries and thus continuing to successively increase our market shares. We are also growing profitably; operating profit for the half-year increased 10 per cent to SEK 693 million.

Continued focus on digitisation

We are continuing to develop products and solutions to help our retail finance partners meet customers’ changed purchasing patterns and drive sales. We launched Resurs Checkout also in physical stores during the half-year with excellent results and our retail finance partners showed widespread interest in this service.

For most of our customers, the mobile telephone has become the most important digital platform. For this reason, we are developing the “Resurs Bank” app featuring a user-friendly interface for customers to use all of our services themselves. The aim is that the app will be launched in Sweden in the third quarter of 2018 and then be rolled out in our other markets.

We launched our proprietary credit engine in Sweden during the half-year, which quickly generated positive results for our customers and thus also our growth. The credit engine offers a simpler and more automated application process for customers and provides us with better conditions to analyse and enhance the efficiency of credit lending. It has already been launched in Finland and Norway with positive results. The credit engine also enhances internal efficiency since we can handle a higher number of applications without needing to increase staffing levels.

Brand initiatives and several new retail finance partners

We initiated work on further strengthening the Resurs brand in 2017. We want to raise awareness about Resurs and what we stand for. The first tangible result is our updated website that was launched in Sweden during the half-year and we will increase our media presence towards the end of the summer. These brand initiatives were charged to expenses in the half-year.

We received additional confirmation during the half-year that our products, solutions and service are appreciated in the market when we initiated collaborations with several new retail finance partners, both physical stores such as all of Beijer Bygg’s stores in Sweden and pure e-commerce players such as Ellos’s new brand Homeroom. More than 30 per cent of our sales in retail finance in the first half of 2018 were from e-commerce.

GDPR and PSD2 completed

During the half-year, we completed our work on two important regulatory projects, GDPR and PSD2, which aim to strengthen consumer protection and privacy. We are positive to the new legislation and have adapted our operations to the new regulations. Now that the projects have been completed, resources have been freed up to continue to develop innovative products and services that create value for our customers and retail finance partners.

Overall, the half-year represented a strong start to 2018 with healthy, profitable growth. We are gradually becoming larger and stronger in a continuously growing market – and we look forward to continuing to capture market shares in the second half of 2018.

Kenneth Nilsson,
CEO Resurs Bank

For additional information:
Peter Rosén, CFO & Head of IR, peter.rosen@resurs.se +46 736 56 49 34
Sofie Tarring, IR-Officer, sofie.tarring@resurs.se +46 736 44 33 95

About Resurs Bank:
Resurs was founded in 1977 and is one of the fastest-growing niche banks in the Nordic region. During the 1980s, we pioneered the successful “interest free” retail finance concept, and today we are one of the leading Nordic retail finance banks, with about 5.7 million private customers across the Nordic region. From our core business in retail finance, we have expanded our product offering to also include savings accounts, insurance policies, consumer loans and credit cards. Resurs Bank is owned by Parent Company Resurs Holding and is part of the Resurs Holding Group. In 2015, Resurs Bank acquired the subsidiary yA Bank. When we use the term “Group” in this report, we are referring to the Resurs Bank Group.

* Certain performance measures provided in this section have not been prepared in accordance with IFRS or the capital adequacy rules, meaning that they are alternative performance measures. Calculations and reconciliation against information in the financial statements of these performance measures are provided on the website under “Financial information.” Definitions of performance measures are provided on page 28. The figures in parentheses refer to 30 June 2017 in terms of financial position, and to the year-earlier period in terms of profit/loss items.

This information is information that Resurs Bank AB is obliged to make public pursuant to the EU Market Abuse Regulation, the Securities Markets Act and the Norwegian Securities Trading Act Section 5-12. The information was submitted for publication, through the agency of the contact person set out above, at 07:30 a.m CET on 24 July 2018.

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