SVNLY (SVNLY) Q3 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Good morning, and welcome to this presentation of Handelsbanken's results for the third quarter and the first 9 months of 2026. When we add Q3 to the bank's 155-year long history, we can see that the solid and stable value creation generated by our business model continued. Net interest income, fee and commissions and NFT increased and expenses dropped. Asset quality remained solid with a credit loss ratio again of 0 basis points. Operating profit increased by 10% compared to the previous quarter and reached SEK 7.4 billion. All home markets saw increased operating profits, business volume grew in terms of both household and corporate lending and deposits as well as asset under management, which reached a new all-time high this quarter. ROE increased to 13.5%. The capital position remains robust. In this year's SREP from the Swedish FSA, the capital requirement, including Pillar 2G was lowered by 20 basis points to 14.5% after deduction of anticipated dividend for the first 9 months of the year of SEK 8 per share, equivalent to 92% of profits for the period, the CET1 ratio was 17%. In other words, 250 basis points above the requirement, including Pillar 2G and within the target range of 100 to 300 basis points above. The bank has now received approval for new PD models for both Corporate and Household exposures. New PD models for Corporates was implemented in Q3. And in Q4, the new PD model for Household exposures will be implemented. The latter is expected to reduce the CET1 requirement by approximately SEK 3 billion. Net of cancellation of the related Pillar 2 requirement associated with a model application process. The customers' appreciation of Handelsbanken's locally, connected and personal business model was again confirmed by several external annual surveys during the quarter, such as the EPSI survey. We always adjust our local presence and branch network based on customer demand. And in this quarter, we announced the opening of a new branch in Canary Wharf in London. And to note, the shareholder value creation continued to be stable with several days of new all-time highs in the share price during the quarter. Handelsbanken's business model is based on long-term customer relationships and local presence with our advisers working physically close to our customers in our branch network. This enables not only superior service and customer satisfaction, but also a deep knowledge of the local market circumstances and ability to quickly monitor and act on potential changes in the risk profile of the customer base. The geographical presence outside of our historical core in Sweden has been built up very carefully over the decades in Northwestern European countries. Our belief is that running a bank with our risk appetite works very well in countries with long-standing, stable democracies with large economies and stable political legal and regulatory structures. It is also essential that there is a material potential for long-term profitable growth over time, and that there is a broad potential customer base that attributes a high value to our today, perhaps unique way of doing banking. We find these prerequisites well met in our home markets Norway, the U.K. and the Netherlands. The bank's business model delivers a steadily growing value over time. Over the past decades, the annual growth in equity plus dividends has been around 14% to 15%. The fact that our business model is appreciated by customers was again confirmed in external surveys during the quarter. The EPSI surveys in our home market showed that the bank has in all home markets, a higher customer satisfaction than the industry average, both on the retail and the corporate side. Our digital offering in the mobile app and the online banking in especially Sweden also renders high customer appreciation. In Sweden, Handelsbanken again scored higher than the industry average, and our larger peers on both the app and the online banking ranked in this year's SKI, EPSI survey in this year, sorry. Furthermore, for the 5th consecutive year, the bank received the award Business Bank of the Year in Sweden and for the 14th consecutive year, Sweden's SME bank by Finansbarometern. And in Global Finance annual ranking, Handelsbanken moved up a notch from last year being recognized as Safest Commercial Bank in Europe, to this year being recognized at the global top as the World's Safest Commercial Bank. And which has been the case for a long time, no other privately owned bank in the world has a higher combined credit rating by the leading rating agencies. We consider these recognitions as testament to our strength and of our customers and the way we operate within our business model. Now if we take a look at the recent business volume development in our 4 home markets, starting with Sweden, accounting for approximately 75% of the operating profits in our home markets. In Sweden, we are the biggest lender combined in the market. Loan volumes overall in Sweden have only grown marginally throughout the past year. Household mortgage lending has grown slightly while the corporate lending volumes have been down slightly. In terms of corporate lending in Sweden, we do see an underlying growth, but the net growth figure has been hampered by the departure of some sometimes very large customers that the banks considered drifting away from our preferred risk profile for the various reasons and therefore, left the books. In Q3, we have seen an underlying higher customer activity, which often is a leading indicator for coming lending growth. The Savings business continued to progress well with asset under management increased by 23% compared to last year. Operating profit in Sweden grew by 5% in the quarter. The cost-to-income ratio improved to 32% and the profitability increased to 16.5%. In the U.K., which accounts for 13% of the profits in the home market, we have, for the past 1.5 years, seen a consistent growth in both our Household and Corporate lending. In local currency, the Household lending was up 5% and the Corporate lending 9% compared to Q3 last year. The loan growth figure in Q3 was the highest we've seen since Q2 2018, underlying the positive momentum we now see. The bank still has a fairly small market share in the U.K., but it's -- is now consistently gaining market share. Given the very large size of the U.K. market, the growth potential is therefor significant over time for the bank. The asset under management increased by 10%. Operating profit grew by 5% compared to Q2 and 2% in local currency. The cost income ratio improved to 59.8% and the profitability was stable at 12%. The U.K. is the market where we stand out the most in terms of headroom to peers when it comes to customer satisfaction. Having a very appreciated offering together with opportunity to gain market share in a large market, suggest a good potential of profitable growth over time. In Norway, which accounts for 9% of the profits in the home markets, we stated 2 years ago that we needed to see a better balance between Deposits, Savings and Lending. Over the past year, the Lending volume have dropped somewhat, but we can note that the negative trend appears to have flattened out over the past 2 quarters. Competition remains fierce in the market. The key improvements in Norway is seen in the Savings business. Over the past 2 years, the market share of net inflows into mutual funds in Norway has been around 2x the market share of the outstanding volumes. The growth in Asset Management was 25% compared to last year. The operating profit increased by 6% in the quarter and 4% in local currency. The cost-to-income ratio improved to 43.8% and the profitability improved to 11.3%. Finally, the Netherlands, which accounts for 3% of the profit in our home markets. And where just like in the U.K., the distance to peers in terms of customer satisfaction is particularly large. Lending volume increased by 2% in the quarter and the growth has been steadily and strong over the past year, up 10% compared to Q3 last year, driven by 18% growth in Corporate Lending. Just like in the U.K., the market is very large and the growth potential is significant over time for the bank. And also here, we have a trend for numbers numerous quarters with strong growth in asset under management, which grew by 26% compared to last year. Operating profit increased by 13% in the quarter and 11% in local currency. The cost-to-income ratio improved to 50.8% and the profitability increased to 11.7%. Now if we look at the group, group financials of Q3 compared to Q2. ROE improved to 13.5% and the cost income ratio to 42.3%. NII increased marginally but was down marginally adjusted for currency effects. Fee and commission grew by 6%, mainly driven by increased assets under management and payment fees. The NFT bounced back to the long-term average level of around SEK 500 million after the temporary drop in the previous quarter. Adjusted for currency effects, total income increased by 3%. Expenses showed yet another quarter of decline and dropped 1%. Adjusted for currency effects and Oktogonen provisions, the decline was 3%. The credit loss ratio was 0 basis points. Regulatory fees dropped as the previous quarter included the cost for mandatory interest free deposits at the central bank, covering the period until next summer. All in all, the underlying operating profit increased by 10%, primarily driven by higher income and lower costs. If we now switch over and look at the first 9 months of the year compared to the same period last year. ROE increased to 13.3% and the cost income ratio improved to 42%. NII declined by 8% adjusted for currency effects. The decline was related to lower margins in the wake of lower short-term market rates. Net fee and commission income, on the other hand, increased by 9%. The key driver was the savings business with strong inflows and positive market developments. All in all, total income dropped by 4% on an underlying basis, expenses dropped by 3% and 1% adjusted for currency effects and Oktogonen provisions. The decline was actively achieved despite the annual salary revision that comes into force on January 1 each year. General cost inflation and increased spend in IT development. The credit loss ratio was 0 basis points and the operating profit dropped by 3% on an underlying basis by 8%. Now if we move over and take a closer look at the NII development compared to the previous quarter, as I mentioned earlier, the NII increased slightly over the quarter. It is positive to note that volume growth is again starting to filter through into the quarter-to-quarter NII development. Increased lending and deposit volume contributed by -- with SEK 87 million or 1% of the NII in the quarter. The net of margins and funding, however, affected negatively by SEK 194 million. This was mainly an effect of higher funding costs that we have not met in the yields on certain assets, such as central bank deposits and also through competition, making it hard to fully transfer higher funding costs into customer rates. Moving on, the day count effect due to 1 more day in the quarter added to SEK 31 million and the currency effects due to the weaker krona on average, contributed together with SEK 112 million. Other effects were minor. Net fee income reached the highest level recorded so far and was up 12% compared to last year. The bulk of the fee and commission related to the Savings business, especially in the Mutual Funds business. Continued strong net inflows into assets under management as well as positive market development, increased the savings-related fees by 16% compared to last year. Other fees increased by 2%, compared to last year, primarily driven by payment-related fees. Again, we'd like to highlight the consistency in the organic growth on the Savings business. The bank's market share of outstanding Mutual Funds volumes in Sweden is 12%. But over the past decade, the bank has attracted 28% of all net inflows into the market. For the first 9 months of 2026, 35% of the net inflows into the Swedish mutual funds market went into Handelsbanken funds. Over time, these strong net inflows have added significant customer AUM. Over the past decade, the bank has seen accumulated net inflows of almost SEK 330 billion, significantly outpacing peers. This success comes not only from an appreciated offering and strong performance in the funds over the years, but also the bank's distribution capacity where advisers are close to and have deep relationship with the customers, parallel to an appreciated offering and distribution in the digital -- our digital channels. Now over to the expenses. Total expenses were up 1% compared to Q3 last year. Staff costs, excluding Oktogonen, were marginally up and other expenses marginally down. Perhaps relevant to note is that the sideways moving expenses, including annual salary revisions, general inflation and increased IT development spend over the period. As we highlighted in Q2 report, the bank spends a lot of resources, embracing new technology, such as, of course, in the field of AI. The bank invests roughly SEK 3 billion to SEK 3.5 billion per year in IT development. The investments in AI fits within the current run rate of our IT spending. Next slide shows our asset -- show our asset quality and the credit losses. And over the past decades, credit losses have been very low, which they should be in the bank with Handelsbanken's risk appetite. And the difference compared to peers really shows in the volatile times when there is an economic downturn. The average quarterly credit losses since 2019 has been SEK 3 million per quarter, equal to 0 basis points. And that includes not only the outbreak of the pandemic, but also sharp swings in policy rates and inflation, the disruption of supply chains following geopolitical uncertainties with wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East, et cetera, et cetera. Still more or less no credit losses, underlining the strength in the asset quality of the bank. The bank is in a solid financial position, credit risks, funding risks, liquidity risks and market-related risks are prudently managed and the capital position is strong. After an anticipated dividend for the first 9 months of the year, of almost SEK 16 billion corresponding to SEK 8 per share and 92% of the earnings for the period, the CET1 ratio was 250 basis points above regulatory requirement. Hence, as previously mentioned, well within the target range. Over the past several years, the bank has as well as our peers, had applications at the FSA for new PD models for Corporate and Household exposures. In Q2, our PD model for corporate exposures was approved. This was implemented in Q3. And in conjunction with that, the Pillar 2 add-on of 14 basis points for the Corporate PD models application process was removed. And in the beginning of October, the bank also received approval for the new PD models for Household exposures. This will be implemented in Q4 and is expected to increase the risk exposure amount by around SEK 1 billion. In conjunction with the implementation of this model in Q4, the Pillar 2 and on the 28 basis points related to the application process will be removed. This means that if we estimate that in Q4, the approved PD model for Household exposures should lead to a net reduction of capital need of around SEK 3 billion. The 2 PD models approvals make a mark a milestone after 5 years of dialogue with the FSA, which has included everything for the setup, assumptions, validations, and processes and routines behind the model. Obviously, the internal work with the now approved PD model has been both time-consuming and resource-intensive and we are very happy that we now have come as far as we have. And not the least, the approval marks the confirmation of the quality of our models. So also from this perspective, the bank is in a very solid place. Finally, to wrap up, Q3 was a stable quarter for the bank with increased earnings and profitability. Income increased, cost decrease, credit quality remains strong. All home markets improved earnings. Business volume grew. The capital position is solid, enabling the bank to anticipate healthy dividend. The strong customer appreciation of our local and customer-oriented business model was once again confirmed by annual external surveys in the quarter and the continuous and important to note, stable value creation for our shareholders continued with positive development also reflected in all-time highs in the share price during this quarter. And with those final remarks, we'll now take a short break before moving into the Q&A session. Thank you. [Break]

Welcome back, and welcome to this Q&A session. This is Peter Grabe, Head of Investor Relations speaking. And joining me in this session, we have Michael Green, the CEO; and Marten Bjurman, CFO.

[Operator Instructions] We will now go to the first question. And your first question today comes from the line of Magnus Andersson from ABG Sundal Collier.

Just on volumes, considering that lending volume growth is flat quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year here in Sweden and flat quarter-on-quarter in Norway down year-on-year in Norway and growing -- while growing in the U.K. I was wondering about Sweden and Norway, whether you are taking any proactive measures to drive volume growth, i.e., are you reviewing the way you look at profitability per client, your onboarding procedures, et cetera? And related to Sweden, you talked about those volumes that left the book. I thought that was earlier in the year. Did you have those effects also in Q3? So that's my question.

Thank you, Magnus. This is Marten speaking. Yes, the Corporate Lending, if I start with Sweden then, I would like to phrase it this way. If we have a quarter or a couple of quarters, that is we are lagging behind the market a little bit in terms of volume. That is not a major concern for us. That being said, though, of course, this is an important market for us, obviously, and we are not happy with us lagging behind at all. So we are long term, and we believe strongly in our business model, as you know, Magnus, the decentralized way of working. And no, we have not made any major changes to that. We don't feel the need to do it. Quite the opposite, actually, we feel that our customers are really attributing a high value to our way of working and our products and offerings is still valid from that perspective. I would like to highlight a few things then. Michael alluded to the net -- this is a net number, obviously. And we have, as you said, Magnus, we have performed what I would call a little bit of housekeeping of the books, primarily in the former part of the year. And we have seen that also a little bit in Q3, not as much as in the previous quarter, but still this is not a onetime thing. This is something that we do continuously. So that can happen anytime. And we are happy to do so that is basically a guarantee for prudent banking long term. So for us to be able to provide our shareholder value long term, it's key for us to have the credit quality, obviously, in the books. I think also, if we dig a little bit deeper into what's happening here in Sweden, we see that some trigger points are really there now in terms of our activity in the branch offices. We see a little bit of signs here and there. And sometimes, it takes a little bit of time. So I agree with your point. We need to have a little bit of patience. I would obviously like to have a present different number today, but we are looking forward to the future from that regard.

Okay. And may I just follow up on the U.K. where you have -- you're growing in local currencies, both quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year, but it looks like NII has a different, i.e., weaker trajectory. If you could say something about that. And also, if you would be willing to share with us what portion of your mortgage lending is now done through the broker channels versus your own?

Well, we have basically 3 channels in terms of mortgages in our U.K. business. One is the local broker-led channel and the second one is the nationwide broker-led channel. And obviously, the third one is our day-to-day business that we are used to, i.e., the branch offices directly. All of these 3 lines are working well now for the moment. And as you can see, perhaps is that we are outgrowing the market pace in terms of volume growth in the mortgage market in U.K. Even I'm even more happy with the corporate lending growth in U.K. It's been steady now for some time. We have really felt that we are on a good track, and we have a good momentum throughout the branch office network. It is a broad and sound growth. It's not just one or two branch offices working. It's quite the opposite, actually. So that is happening. Marginal-wise, if you zoom into the margins, yes, they are decreasing a bit and that's just market conditions, and we will obviously see, if you look at our U.K. business long term, should bear in mind that this operation is built to handle a lot larger volumes. And we can do so and not adding basically any cost. So this is a scale game that's happening. And it's taking a little bit of time, but we are doing it carefully. As you know, Magnus, we're building a strong bank in U.K. as well.

So you wouldn't attribute the margin compression to change distribution mix, that's what you're saying?

Magnus, this is Michael speaking. If I'm not remember it incorrectly, I think we've also -- if you compare year-on-year, we've had a cut in the Bank of England rate, I think, of 25 basis points, that is also a margin pressure, as you know, for banking. So that's -- we have to bear that in mind as well.

That's the year-on-year, but also quarterly in Q2, Q3, you had the worse NII development on volumes. So that's why I'm wondering. But I agree with you, Michael, on the year-on-year numbers.

Yes. I can just reiterate what I just said that we see a margin pressure in all basically our home markets and U.K. is perhaps not as bad as some other markets, but we feel the margin pressure there as well.

Your next question today comes from the line of Andreas Hakansson from Nordea.

Just following up a little bit on Magnus' question. So when you say that you are deselecting corporates, could you tell us -- it sounds like you're doing that because you don't like the risk rather than that you don't like the profitability of these loans. So could you just confirm that?

Yes. That's correct, Andreas, and thank you for that question. Again, it can be credit risk and can be other factors or parameters that we weigh into the equation when we feel that this connection is long term, not for us. So -- but it is purely from a risk perspective, yes.

So you could basically have left high ROE type of loans just because you don't live up to the 0 loan loss provision target, that's how we should read it?

Yes. Andreas, we are not -- we do business with the counterparts that we see fit over time for the risk that we like to have in our books. And as Marten just said, we, of course, we know exactly how much we earn on each and every corporate loan we have. But the overall perspective is to have a risk on our books that really our shareholder enjoys over time. So this has nothing to do with margins and pricing. If we don't like the counterpart for various for whatever reason, we will exit that and go for something else, which we also have done. So there is -- we have added on numerous business as well in the quarter with much better profile in terms of risk, but also, of course, on the returns.

And then relating to NII as well, you throughout the report, talk about margins and funding in one sentence really. So could you tell us a little bit how does the competitive margin pressure impact your NII compared to the funding structure? We saw, for example, that you started to issue and cover bonds again after having been declining them for quite some time. So, could you split the 2 out, so we get a better understanding of the real drivers of the NII, please?

Yes, I can try and do that. But bear in mind that there are so many parameters affecting the NII at the end. So -- but yes, competition is one key factor. And in this quarter, I wouldn't say that we have too much of a lag effect of that sort that we have talked about in previous quarters. It's rather that we have, as Michael said in the beginning here that we have not been able to take out the increased funding cost on our customers. That is the bulk of it in this. And we have no change in funding structure whatsoever. We have no change in how we operate in that field from a treasury point of view.

The next question today comes from the line of Nicolas McBeath from DNB Carnegie.

So you flag the upcoming capital requirement relief in Q4 due to the retail PD models. Just wondering if there is anything else in terms of capital requirements or capital drivers that we should take into consideration for Q4? And if you think that 250 basis points management buffer, is a reasonable assumption for you to steer towards, when you think about and decide on the dividend for 2026?

Yes, thank you for those questions. No, these were the 2 major things that we had in this field. Obviously, the PD models that we have now approved is what we said it's a huge thing for us. It is a true milestone, not only from a capital point of view, it's also a little bit of a mark of quality in terms of our processes operationally. We have basically worked with this for 5 years. So it's a big thing from that perspective. And no, we don't foresee any major things coming up from that. And that being said, though, there is always a dialogue discussion and work to be done in terms of modeling. But these are the major steps that we have looked forward to in recent past. And regarding the 2.5%, we don't steer towards anything. It's basically we have set a range. And as you know now, we are in the range. We're happy for that. It's -- we have a great feeling for the latter part of the year from a capital perspective for the known reasons. But we don't guide, and it's basically not up to management to set that ultimate level.

But I mean, to some extent, you do steer towards 250 basis points because you ended up there this quarter again. So that seems to be like the way how you arrive at your dividend anticipation. So shouldn't we read anything towards into that kind of level? Or is it just a decision that will be made again and again every quarter?

Well, to me, at least, Q1, Q2 and Q3 is a little bit different from Q4. Those are in between quarters, and we don't have a huge debate each quarter where we want to be if we are in the interval as we are today. So the major discussion and debate will be held in the latter part of the year.

Your next question today comes from the line of Gulnara Saitkulova from Morgan Stanley.

A question on return on equities. So, you delivered return equity of 13.5%. While many Nordic peers are targeting and generating the returns closer to 15% and many of the European peers, are aiming for even higher levels through the cycle. What do you see as the key strategic levers available for Handelsbanken to close that gap over time? Where do you think Handelsbanken has performed particularly well today? And where do you see the greatest opportunities for improvement? What do you expect to be the key drivers of that improvement going forward? And a couple of details from here from a strategic perspective, how do you see the customer preferences and behaviors evolving in relation to the traditional branch model, particularly given the rapid advancement of AI and digital tools, are you seeing any meaningful decline in branch visits compared to -- with several years ago? And have customer demand for in-person services remained relatively stable? And how do you see this evolving over the next 2 years?

Okay. That was more than one question, I think, a broader question as well, but I will try my best here to navigate you through those. First of all, the corporate target is a relative one. So it's kind of hard to -- short term or long term, set a fixed target from that perspective. And obviously, we want to close that gap as far as, as we can. We are reasonably happy with where we are today with our ROE number. And there is not one answer to the question whether you -- or how in the bank, you increase ROE, obviously, it's basically down to their business model as such, how we work with our customers, stay close to them, understand their needs and provide an offering that is fit for purpose. And as we do so, also keep our costs, obviously, in good control. I think we are in an extremely good path for the moment. We see exciting things happening in the U.K. market, for example, and also in the Netherlands, where we have small market shares, we have exceptionally good momentum in terms of both volumes and also customer satisfaction levels that outperforms the market and the peers in those 2 markets. Since we have those small market shares, I think it's very obvious that our potential is great. So I think that was 1 part of your question. Sweden, obviously, is a huge market for us. We discussed it a little bit earlier, but you shouldn't expect us to outgrow the market significantly over time in that market, but rather stay more or less in line with GDP, as we have said earlier on. I think also you touched upon our way of banking, i.e., the -- I think you used the term traditional banking way or something like that and customer behavior or something like that. I think in the recent past, I think we have learned that our model is, is very appreciated also among our youngest customers. And in these times, when we see a lot of AI features coming into play, I think it's more and more value to be attributed to the possibility to come into a branch office, sit down next to or close to one of our advisers to go through the financial situation. I don't think that will ever be outdated, to be honest, not in my lifetime at least. So from that perspective, that was a little bit of a remark there.

And if I just may add, Marten, we invest and we look very deeply into the new technology, including AI and contribute to the way we perform going forward. Most -- that would mostly come in plan in terms of maybe creating more efficiency around the bank, and we have so many ongoing projects with regards to both efficiency, but also actually contributing to an even stronger offering to our customers. But AI is an amazing and very important technical development that will have a huge impact for many -- on many businesses. But when we listen to customers and we -- if you look into also what AI actually can do, it's a superb way of creating -- collecting data points and run models and whatnot. But the AI does not take into consideration a follow-up history, the way a family looks like life events that goes on in a person's life and it cannot bring real confidence, but it could do a lot of stuff. But we are very -- I'm very convenient -- I'm very convinced that the combination of a very strong, of course, digital offering, take into consideration both offering and execution. When you combine that with our long-term, very decentralized and personal way of adding relationship to our customers, will even be stronger actually going forward.

Our next question today comes from the line of Jacob Hesslevik from SEB.

In Q2, you said the negative spread on your Central Bank cash isn't a one-off as long as the market rates stay above policy rates, LCR has since fallen to 172% from 190% a year ago and the liquidity reserve is at circa SEK 850 billion, also down year-over-year. Are you running down Central Bank liquidity to cut that drag? And how low are you willing to go?

No, we are not taking down that volume. And obviously, that has had an effect in the Q3 NII, as you alluded to, as market rates have gone up and policy rate not following to 100%. So that has had an impact. And no, we have not changed our way of working there.

Our next question today comes from the line of Namita Samtani from Barclays.

You speak about competition making it hard to fully transfer higher funding costs into the customer rates. I just wondered, is this on the Corporate or the Household side? And can you give more color on the subcategories, if its Corporate, for example, large corporates or SME and what type of industry or if it's on the Household side, like is it the largest cities in Sweden or the floating or the fixed side? Thank you.

No. If I start on the Mortgage side, we see really thin margins on Mortgage. And it all comes down to whether you want to see that product stand-alone? Or if you want to look at the customers' entire business with us, we are trying our best to do the latter, of course, since Mortgage stand-alone is not very profitable under these circumstances in Sweden and not in Norway, either for that sake. So -- and I think that is a broad picture. I think the margin pressure in the corporate side in Sweden is also something that we feel is very broad. We don't -- I don't want to say that we see very large differences in terms of sectors or so in terms of margin pressure. It's very broad for the moment.

Can I just follow up? So are you saying on the corporate lending margins on the new lending that's below the back book?

It's hard to say. It's -- I don't have that figure for the moment. It's basically up to each and every our business responsible, obviously, to set the price we don't have central pricing in that sense. So in some occasions, obviously, we are below back book. I don't have the full figure there.

The next question today comes from the line of Sofie Peterzens from Goldman Sachs.

I'm from Goldman Sachs. I just had a question on deposit competition. We saw a 6% quarter-on-quarter decline in Corporate deposits in the Netherlands and also when I look at the deposits, they are growing below loans in Netherlands and U.K. on a year-on-year basis. I was -- also at a group level, you're growing kind of deposit lever or quarter-on-quarter basis compared to the loans. So I was like wondering, what are you seeing in terms of deposit competition both in Sweden and outside of Sweden? Are you seeing kind of pressure to start to increase pricing given that rates trend in the euro area? So If you could just comment what you're seeing on the deposit side and also your strategy here. And then just a very quick question. On the resolution fund fee, should we expect that to continue in 2027? Or is it fair to assume it will drop off? And could be -- could you potentially get the new banking tax?

Thank you, Sofie. Yes, we are happy to see also that our deposit volumes are generally going up and that is something that we have had in focus. I wouldn't say we have had, we haven't set a target, obviously, for that, but we had it in focus, and it's all about broadening the business with the customers and also the type of customers that are are likely to deposit money with us. If we zoom in on the Netherlands and in that particular market, we've had a little bit of an outflow and that's because of one or two major corporates that have withdrawn their deposits with us. So that happens. And in the Netherlands, that will have an effect since it's really a small volume there. So obviously, yes, we have -- and you can say also that on the Corporate side, it's always more volatile than the retail side in general. So you shouldn't read too much into those numbers. And then the latter part of your question was related to regulatory fees, if I remember...

Yes. So the resolution fund fee and potential new banking tax in Sweden.

I mean, we unfortunately have no comments to have on that topic. I'm afraid.

Your next question today comes from the line of Riccardo Rovere from Mediobanca.

I just wanted to be 100% sure I understood correctly, the message you conveyed on model approval. With [indiscernible] On corporate PD models on retail by the end of 2026, is the model review done? Can we put that to bed? I just want to be 100% sure about that. And maybe a quick follow-up. You have a very high payout ratio of 90-something percent in the 9 months. Do you mean you see no opportunities of external growth better than returning your -- basically all your capital to your shareholders?

Yes. Let me clear that for you then. So the PD Corporate models, they were approved in Q2 and implemented in this quarter. And so that is behind us. I think when it comes to PD Households, that was approved now in Q3 and will be implemented in Q4. And obviously, the net effect of the SEK 3 billion, it comes with us implementing those models. So obviously, we have work to do here under Q4, but we are confident that we will do so. And by that, those 2 models will be behind us and implemented by the year-end. And also...

Sorry to interrupt. That's clear. I just want to be sure, then once this is done, that's all, am I right? In terms of model approval, model reassessment...

Sorry, these models are the largest models that we work with. There's always going to be a smaller models included in the internal numbers. But that's just an ongoing -- but these are the major and the absolutely largest model which makes them very important for us.

Okay. Okay. Okay. That's what I wanted to be sure about. Okay. That's Fair enough. And with regard to the PD payout and capital use?

Could -- perhaps if you would repeat that for us very quickly.

Very quickly, just wondering, given that you have a very high payout ratio of 90-something percent in the 9 month, if I'm not mistaken. But I was just wondering whether you see no external growth opportunities at the moment. So you have -- you prefer to basically return all the capital you generate to your shareholders?

No. I think, again, we are always looking into different ways of growth. That being said, though, our preferred way of growing is organically, it takes a little bit more time, but it serves a purpose in terms of prudency and all that, and we are happy that way. I wouldn't rule out M&As for the future, but nothing on the table as for now.

Out next question today comes from the line of Shrey Srivastava, from Citi.

It's a more fundamental question, which is that you've mentioned that you don't expect to grow above the market in Sweden over the long run. And we've seen pretty sluggish volume growth there for the last few years. Despite this, you obviously also point out that your customer satisfaction ratings are at the top of peers. So is this an opportunity for you to go back and look at your total addressable market and see if there's any, any new markets you could potentially enter within Sweden? I'm talking about, for example, equity release mortgages or something where you feel is aligned with your risk appetite. I'm just really interested to hear what sort of conversations you have internally on this.

It was not that long ago, and we decided to, to leave Denmark and also Finland. So as for now and since then, it's -- we are extremely firm in our belief that these 4 markets are the correct ones for us for the moment. We have no discussion ongoing as it regards entering into any new whole market. And also if you -- as you refer to the -- if there are different pockets in the Swedish market where we could increase our lending growth or risk -- take a risk at different segments, this is not the way we work in the bank. It's not going to be like me or somebody else from the executive management pointing out whether you should go to different sectors. This is all done with the Handelsbanken way. We with the drive and the business comes from the branches and also our large corporate branch and, of course, also institutions. So that's where it starts. And if we see a fit for risk purpose and also returns in different segments that suits us well, we will go there. It's not going to be that we, from my perspective, point out certain directions that we want to grow. This is not the way Handelsbanken is doing it, its very decentralized in our business model, as you know. So that's where it starts.

That's understood. But there are certain infrastructure and capabilities you need to sort of implement top-down before adding a new product capability, as you know, which you can't implement branch level. So surely, it's -- at some level, there has to be a group-wide decision. This is the infrastructure we need to start plan.

Yes. So the offer, we are always working with how to make sure that we can provide capacity in the market. If demands will come, it will filter up to us. And of course, we need to invest in certain things to be able to address the market. But it comes from, from our business people doing within our branches. And if that means that we need to adjust, we always adjust in terms of products and infrastructure to be able to offer a competitive offer in the market. So that's -- it's nothing new actually. It will filter through. If there is a demand, we will take a look at it if it needs to be adjusting in the product and the way we do business for this purpose, we, of course, take a look at that.

We will now take our final question for today. And the final question comes from the line of Hari Sivakumaran from KBW.

I want to ask on, kind of, loan growth, but maybe more on the kind of the near-term opportunities, just given that we are kind of going about to start a rate hike in the cycle. I guess what we saw last time was Households property management companies were repaying and amortizing debt. I guess it was a much steeper rate hiking cycle, but just how you think kind of what will happen to customer behavior this time around? And then just if that does potentially limit the near-term growth opportunities, how does that then influence to decision-making around the 250 basis point capital buffer?

Yes. So to start with the latter. The capital buffer is not for debate right now. That will be done in due time when we always do it. I'm not really sure I understood the question, actually, the first one.

Yes. Just the last time we had kind of the rate hike in...

Okay, I got it -- so we don't estimate what our customers will do. We will adjust and adapt to what they do. It's reasonable to -- if the interest rate hikes or increases the people who want and have the ability to amortize, they will probably do that a little bit more than other times. And that's what we saw last time we had a interest rate hike. Now these -- our macroeconomic people in the bank, they estimate 1 or 2 interest rate hikes, it's not at all as it was -- as we see now when we assess it now as it was a couple of years ago. So if the interest rate goes up a quarter 0.5, we'll see. It's not anything dramatic in that, and the customers are always behaving rational, and we will just follow them and do what they need to have and offer that.

That was our final question for today. I will now hand the call back to the room.

Well, thank you, everyone, for listening in and for all the questions. And as always, of course, if you have any follow-up questions, please reach out to the Investor Relations department. And with those words, we wish you all a good day. Thank you very much.

Bye-bye.