Swedish bank SEB Q3 net profit below forecast, pauses share buybacks

STOCKHOLM, Oct 22 (Reuters) – Swedish banking group SEB (SEBa.ST), reported third-quarter ​net earnings below market expectations on Thursday ‌and said it was pausing share buybacks due to continued loan growth and temporarily higher capital ​requirements.

• SEB’s net profit fell to 7.50 billion Swedish crowns ($758.70 ​million) from a year-ago 7.68 billion, below the 7.91 billion expected ⁠by analysts polled by LSEG
• “Net financial income ​was negatively impacted by muted client activity ​and a challenging market-making environment for the fixed income, foreign exchange and commodities business,” acting CEO Jonas Ahlstrom ​said
• Quarterly net interest income totalled 10.88 billion crowns ​versus 10.54 billion a year ago and a mean forecast of ‌10.97 ⁠billion
• SEB said net financial income, which includes trading and is subject to sharper quarterly swings, fell to 1.12 billion crowns from 1.77 billion a year ago
• Sweden’s financial watchdog said ​earlier this ​month that ⁠SEB will temporarily be subject to higher capital requirements due to ​Internal Ratings-Based (IRB) model deficiencies. The new measure increases ​SEB’s ⁠core tier one capital requirement by approximately 10 billion crowns
• SEB said costs are expected to come ⁠in ​below the 2026 full ​year cost target by approximately 500-600 million crowns

($1 = 9.8853 Swedish ​crowns)

Reporting by Niklas Pollard, editing by Essi Lehto