Dnb Asa Sp/Adr

Hello and welcome to the DNB Q4 conference call. My name is François and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this conference is being recorded and for the duration of the call, your line will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions. This can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Rony Helland, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Thank you very much, and hello, everyone, and welcome to D&D's fourth quarter analyst call. The whole management team of BNB is here, eager to answer all the questions, including Kerstin Ida, of course, and then head of corporate, Harald Sarkhansson, head of personal, Inge-Ive Blektesviten, and the CRO, Sverre Krog, and head of wealth, Håkon, and also the head of the market, Alex. So before we start, Ida will give a short introduction of the highlights for the quarter. Ida?

Thank you so much and thank you all for taking the time to participate in this course. The Norwegian economy is robust and there are clear signs of a soft landing in sight. BNP continued to decline in the second half of 2023 and mainland GDP growth is expected to end up at 1% for the year. Our economists expect a growth in 2024 of 0.6% and 1.4% in 2025. Mainland corporate investment is expected to have decreased by 2.1% in 2023 and to see a further decrease by 1.7% in 2024 and then start to see an increase again at more normalized levels from 2025 and onwards. Puzzle consumption declined in 2023 as expected but is expected to start to increase again in 2024 when real wages are up and are expected to start to increase again following two years of decline. Unemployment remains low at 1.9% and even though it's expected to move up towards 2.8% in 2025, this is still at historically low levels. Wage growth was around 5.4% in 2023 and is expected to be around 5.1% in 2024. The key policy rate is now at 4.5% following the latest hike in December and is expected to remain at this level until September when our economists expect the first cut, followed by a gradual decrease to 3.25 at the end of 2025. Now moving on to the strong quarterly results from dnb. There is a strong underlying result with a return on equity of 14.6% in the quarter and 15.9% for the year. This was driven by increase in NII of 1.8% from the third quarter and strong performance across product areas within commission and fees, up 8.1% from the corresponding quarter last year, as well as FICC income, where we continue to see strong results even this quarter. The loan volumes were affected by general lower market activity and are down by 0.5% in both customer segments. Deposits was also down in the quarter, but up in the corporate customer segment. The credit portfolio remains robust and well diversified. This quarter, we have impairment provisions of $920 million, primarily driven by customer-specific events in large corporate and small to medium-sized enterprises within sectors that are more exposed to higher interest rates, lower construction activity, and lower overall consumption. The capital position of the bank is strong at 18.2%, 140 basis points above the regulatory expectation, which is now at 16.8%. With a sound profitability and strong capital position, we were happy to announce that the board has proposed a nominal cash dividend of 16 kroner per share to the annual General Assembly. A clear signal that we continue to deliver on our dividend policy also now. And with that, we open up for questions.