Danske Bank may say profit declined

THE owners of National Irish Bank, Danske Bank, the second-biggest Nordic lender by market value, may say profit declined in the third quarter after the bank booked losses on bad loans and as an expansion in Ireland and Finland boosted expenses.

Net income probably dropped to 3.38 billion kroner (€453 million) from 4.3bn kroner a year earlier, according to the average estimate of 20 analysts surveyed by SME Direkt. Costs likely increased 12% to 6.07bn kroner, while loan losses amounted to 202m kroner, the survey showed.

Danske Bank may follow Sweden’s Swedbank and Denmark’s Jyske Bank and Sydbank in reporting lower third-quarter profit.