Swedbank to create Baltic real-estate company

In the trail of the financial crisis in the Baltic States, Swedbank, the region's largest lender, is likely to end up with large assets in real-estates, confiscated from customers that fail to pay interest.

“We will become a real estate company in these countries within a few years”, said Swedbank’s CEO Michael Wolf in a speech at the political event Almedalen Week on the island of Gotland on Tuesday.

By doing so, Swedbank aims to contribute to the reconstruction of the Baltic real-estate sector.

All-in-all, the Swedish banks stand strong in the Baltic crisis, he said. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority has during the last few months turned up the worst-case-scenarios and made tough stress test, resulting in the conclusion that the major Swedish banks can withstand credit losses in the Baltics exceeding 150 billion kronor (€14 billion) over a three-year period.