TALLINN — Swedbank’s Baltic division improved considerably in the second quarter of this year, even returning to profit in Estonia after being hammered with losses as the economic crisis took hold last year.

Swedbank’s Estonian subsidiary earned a 108 million krooni (€6.9 million) profit in the second quarter, although the first quarters losses were deep enough to keep 2010 in the red for the Swedish bank.

“For some time there have been positive signs in the economy and in the clients’ behavior, and now we can see them in the banking sector as well — after negative economic results for five quarters in a row, this quarter we can show a positive result,” Priit Perens, head Swedbank in Estonia said in a press release.

In Lithuania, though, the bank lost 142 million litai (€41 million) and in Latvia it lost 11 million lats (€15 million), both belied by bad loans. Both of the losses were considerably less than the first quarter, though, with Lithuania’s down 40 percent and Latvia’s down 24 percent.

“In the Baltic countries, credit quality has improved more rapidly than anticipated which meant that credit losses have decreased strongly,” said Swedbank Chief Executive Officer Michael Wolf. “Assuming that the global macro-economy develops according to current expectations, we believe our results will continue to improve.”

This article is free to view. To read Baltic Reports’ subscription-only articles, click here.