SEB, one of Sweden’s largest banks and run by the country’s powerful Wallenberg family, said yesterday its private banking operations in the...

SEB, one of Sweden’s largest banks and run by the country’s powerful Wallenberg family, said yesterday its private banking operations in the Nordic region had grown strongly in the three months to June 30. Danish Jyske Bank also announced strong private banking results in the first half of 2005. SEB recorded a 26 per cent rise year-on-year in operating profits across the group to SKr3 billion ($380 million) in the second quarter; no breakdown was given for the bank’s private banking results. Total assets under management rose by 14 per cent to SKr1,012 billion in the first half of 2005, compared with the year-end 2004. No breakdown was given for private banking AUMs, but the bank said the dominate part of the net inflow came from Sweden and other Nordic countries. Jyske Bank also said its international private banking business grow strongly in the first half of 2005, although again no breakdown was provided. Both banks are likely to be benefiting from an increasing surge in wealthy Scandinavian repatriating money back home as a result of the European Union’s Savings Directive, although no Nordic country has implemented a tax amnesty.