“We admit that we have made mistakes here, in the Baltic countries. I mean the credit bubble and its consequences. But we do not want another one. I think we have learnt our lesson and will not let the mistakes repeat themselves. It will be achieved through more stringent regulation, higher capital requirements, strengthened bank’s balance and changes in macroeconomic environment, as well as through changes in our requirements for customers, investments in education on management of personal finances, budget management and similar issues,” she said in an interview to the Verslo Žinios business daily.
Swedbank continued to implement cost saving measures, although it started reducing their scale, Bonnesen said.
The head of Baltic Banking at Swedbank assured that lending volumes would recover as well.
“The business sometimes does not understand that the banks are a reflection of the country’s macroeconomic situation and a decline in lending volumes simply reflects the general situation. Although the macroeconomic situation still poses many challenges, the situation in business is now much better than a year or several years ago and lending will recover as well,” Bonnesen said.
