SpareBank 1 Sør-Norge Stock

Good afternoon, everybody, and a warm welcome to this Fourth Quarter Presentation for the SpareBank 1 Sor-Norge Group. My name is Inge Reinertsen. I'm Group CEO of the bank. Together with me, Mr. Eirik Monsen, who is our CFO; and also Mr. Morten Forgaard, who is Head of Investor Relations.

Together, we will give you a brief presentation of the yearly figures and also the fourth quarter, and then we will be open for questions from you. First, just a quick look at the macro conditions. Still Norway and the southern part of Norway, in particular, is a very prosperous area to do banking business.

If you look at the PMIs, they are for all countries except from the [ other country ] above 50%, which states that the expectation is on the positive side. Unemployment remains low in the area of 2% for the country. And despite the ongoing global uncertainty, the activity remains on a high level for Norway as a country. 2 days ago, we announced the new group management of the bank.

It is now approximately 18 months, since we had the merger in between SpareBank 1 SR-Bank and SpareBank 1 Norway. And during that period, we have maintained a high growth and high profitability, but now we take measures to make the organization even more effective. We have reduced the group management by approximately [ 50% ]. That leaves more decision power to fewer people in the group management and also that will have a positive impact of the total organizational chart.

As a consequence of this, we have increased our ambition, when it comes to full-time employees from a reduction of 100 full-time employees up to 150. And also by doing this, we have increased our ambitions, when it comes to synergies from NOK 450 million up to NOK 550 million. And as shown on the chart in the lower section of this page, we have achieved approximately 1/3 of this ambition as of today.

The synergies will be able to achieve from personnel synergies, operational synergies and funding synergies. And this clearly shows the value of doing a merger, and I can remind you that as of today, there are still 72 savings banks in Norway. So there should be a lot of potential for future mergers within the sector. And of course, as one of the most profitable and one of the largest of the savings bank, we should be able to play an important role in such further consolidation.

Their financial targets stand at above 14% as a long-term target on return on equity. This quarter, we have updated as commented on already, the synergies up from NOK 450 million to NOK 550 million. And we have also reduced the cost-to-income long-term target from below 40% down to below 35%. By doing so, we feel confident that we are in a position of making the group even more cost effective. And of course, that should underpin our ambition of the 14% return on equity.

Fourth quarter also means the decision from the Board of Directors regarding dividend, and we are happy to announce that we increased the dividend from NOK 8.5 as of last year up to NOK 12 this year. Also, we have established a share buyback program as a supplement to cash dividends, and this clearly shows our ambition on having strong capital discipline and also our ability to have profitable growth in combination with a strong cash and capital distribution.

This NOK 12 is equal to a 71% payout ratio for the 2025 profit. As a modern savings bank, we are also a public limited liability company. That means that different from most other Norwegian savings bank, we have 100% of our equity listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. The total dividend with NOK 12 is approximately NOK 4.5 billion. And 55% of that will be distributed to our regular shareholders. But as a savings bank, we have 7 foundations that altogether stands for 45% of the owner share of the bank.

These banks -- excuse me, these foundations will receive NOK 2.0 billion in dividend, and they will turn around and contribute to the local communities with sports and culture activities. And this is kind of the modern savings bank tradition. We contribute to the society by giving top financial services at competitive pricing. And also as we come to the year-end and with a strong profitability, we give a large share of that back to the local communities through the 7 foundations.

This map shows the 53 branches, which is the physical distribution power of the bank. We have also a state-of-the-art Internet or mobile banking. And in this what we call the physical and the digital landscape, we have access to approximately 75% of the Norwegian inhabitants. As shown on the map, we have a steady growth in all market areas, where we have listed in different countries on the left-hand side.

And we are, of course, well positioned for both becoming more cost effective and also have a steady growth going forward. If we look at the main figures, we delivered a 12.8% return on equity for the full year 2025 as return after tax. If we exclude one-off effects arise from goodwill and merger cost, that is equal to a 14.1% return on equity.

The cost to income ratio came in at 38%. And also, we have a very strong position, when it comes to our common equity Tier 1 capital ratio, which with 17.57% is 85 bps basis points above the requirements from the financial authorities. If we look at the fourth quarter results, which Eirik also will dig more into, the return on equity came in on 11.9% this quarter and the reason for being just a tad below 12.8% was a bit weaker financial result this quarter.

Altogether, this leaves us with a bank with a very strong position, both on the distribution side and also on the cost side, and we believe this should be a very good position for further profitable growth. And with that, I hand the word over to Eirik, who will give you some more financial details. Please, Eirik.

Thank you, Inge.

Starting with the net interest income. The fourth quarter is the first quarter, where we have the full effect of the Central Bank reduction in interest rate in June. We also have partly the effect of the reduction in interest rate in September, which result in a reduced margin or reduced net interest income on the margin side.

This is partly compensated by continued growth in the lending growth and also by reduced funding costs explained by entering into the certificate market in Europe. So in total, we have a stable development in net interest income from the third quarter to the fourth quarter. When it comes to lending growth, starting with retail market, we continue to have a good development and good lending growth, 6% over the last 12 months compared to 4.8% in the retail household market in general, continuing to take market share and also a positive development on the deposit side with a 9.7% growth over the last 12 months compared to 8.3% in the market in general.

When it comes to the corporate market, we have a 12-month growth of minus 1.7% adjusted for currency, the growth is minus 1.0%. We see that the customers are still holding back on investments. We see tough competition from other banks. And we also see that larger customers, some of the larger customers also use the bond market. The bond market, as you know, have been very good in 2025, and we also get our share of that through our ownership in SB1 markets.

On the development -- sorry, on the deposit side, we also have -- we have a very good growth over the last 12 months of 16.4%. Some of these deposits are -- what we call it, municipality deposits. But adjusted for municipality deposits, we still have a 12% deposit growth on the corporate market side over the last 12 months.

We are very happy with the development on commission and other income during 2025, especially with insurance savings and the real estate agency. You see a slightly reduced income on the real estate agency from the third quarter to the fourth quarter.

That's 100% seasonal effect explanation. When you look at the fourth quarter '24 against '25, we have a reduction on the payment facilities, and this does explained as we have explained for the previous quarters in '25, it's a change in the commission model on the credit cards with Kredittbanken. And some -- partly of this is compensated by an increased revenue share from Kredittbanken.

We also have a slightly reduced income from the accounting firm in the fourth quarter compared to '24. Looking at the accounting firm for the whole 2025, we see also a good development compared to '24. Net income on financial investments from the third quarter to the fourth quarter, the reduction is more or less 100% explained by a reduction in derivatives.

It's the basis swaps explains half of this reduction in derivatives and the other half is explained by other IFRS 9 effects. When you look at fourth quarter year-on-year, we have a good increase in income from other ownerships, explained by increased revenue from the group and also from SB1 market.

And as already said, we have increased our synergy target to -- with NOK 100 million to NOK 550 million. Of the NOK 100 million in increase, NOK 70 million is allocated to personnel synergies, and it's explained by now the ambition of taking out 100 FTEs is now increased to 150 FTEs. And the other NOK 30 million is allocated to funding synergies. We see that we are able to take out even more savings, when going into the European certificate market on the funding side.

And we are on track with the synergy takeout. This is proved by also now have taken out 61 of the first 100 FTEs by the end of 2025. And we will continue to report on the synergy takeouts in the coming quarters. Operating expenses, third quarter to fourth quarter, we have an increase if you adjust for the merger costs. This is explained by seasonal effects. But if you look at fourth quarter development year-on-year, you start to see signs of the synergy effects also in the P&L.

If you look at the personnel expense, it's almost a 0 increase from the fourth quarter in '24 to the fourth quarter in '25. We have impairments of NOK 127 million in the fourth quarter. Of this, NOK 130 million is in individual impairments related to some few corporate engagements, which have come to conclusion in the fourth quarter, slightly higher than previous quarters. But looking at the year as a total, we have NOK 352 million in impairments, which is 9 basis points, which we consider as being below a normal year.

And there are no signs of any indications of changes in trends or negative trends, when it comes to impairments going forward. And we have a good solid capital ratio of 17.57%, a buffer of 85 basis points down to the minimum requirement. And we have, during the fourth quarter, implemented revised IRB models for the corporate market, which result is that the temporary Pillar 2 requirement has been removed. We also see by implementing these models, we have a slight reduction in the capital ratio and the net effect of this is neutral, close to 0.

And we also, as we said in the third quarter, last summer's SREP process have resulted in a reduced Pillar 2 premium requirement and also the Pillar 2 guidance has been reduced. The net effect of this is 47 basis points. So with that, we are well positioned for profitable growth and a strong capital distribution in the time to come.

Thank you, Eirik. And just to comment briefly on the outlook, we feel that we are well positioned, as Eirik said, to take the place as one of the top ranked banks, when it comes to financial deliverance. We have, of course, some uncertainty related to trade policy and the geopolitical tension, but the Norwegian economy and our position within this prosperous country is undoubtedly very solid.

And with that optimism, I believe it's time to hand over the word to you. So please just raise your hand and feel free to ask questions, and we will do our very best to provide you with answers. So please, everybody.

Okay. Please, Simen Aas come with your question.

Yes. I just have one question, and it's on dividends, just to get a feel for how you think about the dividends and buybacks going forward with NOK 12 share very strong. Should we expect you to see nominal increasing dividends and then do buybacks on top? Or are you willing to let the dividend drop down reflecting maybe a lower NII this year and everything, making it rough to match the EPS that you delivered in '25. So that is my question.

Yes. Thank you, Simen, for your question. We don't give kind of any explicit guiding on that. Our dividend policy says at least 50% in cash dividend. But of course, we have to take into consideration what will be the profitability, the growth that we will have for the upcoming periods.

And also, of course, the Board of Directors, if they want to have another buyback program, they will, of course, also take into consideration the pricing of the shares. So we haven't kind of made any decisions as of today of how we will kind of combine the different tools. But of course, we are very committed that we will have a strong cash dividend as kind of the foundation of our distribution to our owners.

Okay. So we should think that the dividend always will come first and then you do buybacks, if the capital allows for it. Am I right in reading it? Yes.

Yes, absolutely. What comes first is, of course, a dividend to our owners in cash.

And we also have a question from [ Pierre ], please.

A few questions on my side. The first is on your improved cost/income ratio target from 40% to 35%. What makes you more confident in terms of cost efficiencies on the FTEs or is there a stronger automation or other elements. The second question is on the evolution of base rates. The Norge's bank mentioned that they were contemplating something like 1 or 2 cuts this year. We've seen that the last inflation rates were still high. What is -- what do you have in your plans, 1 to 2 cuts or perhaps even no cut at all for the year?

And the third question is on your issuance plans. I'm credit analyst, that's why on the issuance plan. I have seen that there's a [ NOK 37 billion ] of debt maturing this year. But is it possible to perhaps more precision or more details on your expectations for 2026?

Thank you for your questions, Pierre. I will try to answer the first question, when it comes to the ambition of a 35% cost-to-income ratio. As you mentioned yourself, it will be a combination of reducing full-time employees, increased automization, taking IA even more into kind of the production and the customer processes.

And of course, we have some payable costs that we should be able to reduce as result of the merger. And being a large bank, being a SIFI bank, we have very good access to the international funding market. We should also be able to optimize the duration and the sources of funding. So having a 35% ambition is not something that is kind of easily achieved, but we feel that this is kind of the right point to aim at to underpin, what we believe is necessary to achieve the 14% return on equity. So it will be a combination of many factors that should make us able to achieve the target.

And perhaps on the second question, Morten.

Yes. Now we don't have our Head of Treasury represented here. But my understanding is that we, for 2026, probably will aim for doing a couple of bonds and also using more of the CP program, which we established in late 2025. So that will be the main goal.

And we also have S&P maturing this year. So we'll consider refinance that bond. So I think that's the 3 main markets we will enter into in 2026. And of course, depending on the market, there will be NOK issuance or euros.

And on the base rate outlook?

Yes. The base rate -- thank you, Pierre, for reminding us. The last figures that we had on the inflation was on the high side. So as of today, people also discussed that perhaps there will be no rate cuts at all. Actually, to participate this evening on the yearly speech from the Central -- the head of the Central Bank. So it will be interesting to hear out her take on the situation.

And perhaps there will be no rate cuts at all, but we kind of whether it will be a rate cut or not, it doesn't kind of change our way of kind of running the business as such. So we work on kind of our efficiency measures and of course, also delivering the best services to our customers, and we will be able to make kind of a profitable growth whether the central rate cuts -- excuse me, Central Bank cut rates or not.

And then we also have a question from Herman from Pareto.

Did I understand you correctly that the impact from the new -- from the IRB models did offset the 50 bps reduction in temporary requirement?

Yes, that's correct.

Okay. And then just did you have -- just trying to bridge the capital CET capital. Did you have any sort of positives from the temporary tax differences you booked -- you had 50 basis points drag some years ago. Did that go in your direction this time at the year-end?

Yes. We had a slight effect on that, but nothing material. So I think from the positive side, is a bit more -- less on the goodwill sides and also a bit lower growth than anticipated. I think that was the main drivers.

Okay. And just on the cost, since you are sort of more forward leaning with your new cost/income target and since you are sort of clearly the largest bank in the Alliance, do you feel like your view on cost efficiency is shared across the Alliance?

And could you just share some thoughts on, if there are any disagreements or you feel like you are carrying too much of the total cost burden? It's quite hard from the outside to follow the development internally in the Alliance and with SpareBank and et cetera.

Yes. Thank you for your question, Herman. When it comes to the ambitions, we don't have any kind of discussions in between the 12 banks. This is up to each bank to decide. And of course, the cost/income ratio also is influenced by the kind of ambition, when it comes to net commission and other income and how you kind of assemble the individual bank.

When it comes to what we do jointly in the SpareBank 1 with Utvikling, of course, we have our kind of methodology to share the cost in between the banks. It's very important to pinpoint that this is very kind of beneficial to all of us. And we also have elements with respect to economies of scale in the meaning that a share of the total cost is shared by each bank as a participant in this cooperation.

So that leaves economies of scale to us as the larger banks. So one discussion is how we share the cost. But what we are all very committed in is how to reduce the total cost, how to reduce time to market, how to reduce kind of cost from having joint priorities of what we should invest in. And of course, being 12 participants, that could be costly if every of the 12 participants will have kind of their hand on the steering wheel, so to say.

So we also have a model, where increasingly degree, the larger banks, we kind of take the lead in developing different projects within the Alliance to reduce the cost of coordination. So this is kind of an ongoing discussion, and we try to make the cooperation relevant for each of the 12 banks, whether you are a small bank or you are the largest bank as we are. So it is something that is very beneficial to all of us.

But as I said, we didn't have a discussion on our 35% target with the other banks because still the cost arising from our joint operations accounts for less than 10% of our total cost. So that means they're becoming even more cost effective, it's always a question on what you do in each of the 12 banks. But of course, also the shared cost from our joint activities contribute to the total cost, but in a lesser degree.

Okay. Can I just follow up? So just to -- if I interpreted you correctly, do you feel like the cost focus in the Alliance has sort of accelerated or become more important for the Alliance as a whole? And do the larger banks now, as you say, have a greater control or more influence on some of the processes and leading those processes, although the cost -- the economic cost sharing is still similar?

Yes. The kind of -- what to say it in English, all banks, we are kind of more concerned or we are more focused on the cost. So we have had very kind of good discussions on how to become more effective. And with respect to kind of the influence from the larger banks, we don't have kind of a voting system. Usually, we reach a consensus of what to prioritize.

But of course, the larger banks, we have more people with the competence you need because developing IT systems and so on is a combination of kind of pure IT competence with banking competence. And of course, the larger banks, we have more resources, when it comes to people. So that means that we in a higher degree now also take the lead in these positions and projects, if you understand.

Yes. [indiscernible] from Nordea.

Yes. 2 questions related to the capital. There was a significant reduction from Q3 to Q4 in CET1 ratio. Is it possible to have the bridge between Q3 and Q4 to understand the different elements that leads to this quarterly reduction?

And I know that part of it is RWAs. There was a significant rise in RWAs related to the move to IRB leasing and corporate. On IRB and leasing, the move from standard approach to IRB approach, what are the justification for this year was imposed by the Central Bank. Is it an objective of SpareBank 1 Sor-Norge has an refined view on your loan portfolio? Because generally, when banks move from standardized approach to IRB with a target to reduce RWA is not the contrary.

When it comes to the RWAs on the IRB side, it's 2 separate discussions with the FSA. So the first is that we have been discussing the corporate portfolio for a couple of years. And now we finally agreed with them what the RWA should be. So we implemented the new model in the fourth quarter. And separately, we have applied for IRB on the leasing. So going from the standard approach to IRB. So sort of the leasing part offset the negative part from -- on the corporate side.

In addition, we -- when we implemented the new model, then we released 0.5 on the capital market requirement side. So the effect in total is sort of neutral. Making the bridge from third quarter to fourth quarter, we have 3 main drivers. The first is this implementation of the corporate model and the leasing. So that's one of the parts.

The other part is increased dividend. We have from 50 to 70, 71 dividend. So that's around 50 basis points. And the last point is the buyback on the shares. We introduced that in the fourth quarter, but then we offset the whole amount in fourth quarter. So that's approximately 40 basis points. So that's the total of these 3 elements is the basis of the change from Q3 to Q4.

Thank you very much. Do we see any more hands, Morten?

No.

No. We don't. Thank you very much for your participation. And if you have any further questions, you will find our contact details at the back of the presentation. So thank you very much for taking your time and wishing you all a good day. Thank you from Oslo.

Good afternoon, everybody, and a warm welcome to this third quarter presentation from the SpareBank 1 Sor-Norge Group. My name is Inge Reinertsen. I'm Group CEO of the company. Together with me, Mr. Eirik Borve Monsen, who is Group CFO; and also Mr. Morten Forgaard, who is Head of Investor Relations. We will give you a brief presentation of the highlights of the third quarter, and then we will hand over the word to you if you have any questions.

So to begin with our financial targets, we have a long-term ambition of delivering at least 14% return on equity. This has been a target for a few quarters now. But what is new this quarter is that we have increased the operational synergies from our merger with the other bank from NOK 300 million up to NOK 450 million. Also due to the very strong common equity Tier 1 ratio, we have increased our dividend policy that former was about 50% to at least 50% in cash.

And also, if we flip to the next page, Morten, we have established a share buyback program as a supplement to paying cash dividends, and that would potentially come in addition to a solid cash dividend.

This has been a very interesting and nice year from the SpareBank 1 Sor-Norge Group. We have successfully merged both our accounting companies and our real estate broker. And as of September this year, we also had a very successful technical merger in the parenting bank. That means that we transferred approximately 350,000 customers and really a lot of data from the other bank to the platform of the former SpareBank 1 SR-Bank.

This technical merger put us in a position of working even more with realization of synergies. We have a lot of processes on harmonization of products and work processes. And by this, we should be able to increase efficiency and competitiveness even further and also, of course, deliver on the new ambition of the NOK 450 million of synergies.

If we look at the environment surrounding us and our market area, we have a benign environment for running a profitable bank. We have a low unemployment rate that has remained low for a long time, both in the regions and in Norway as a country. And if we look at our business survey, as you will see in all the relevant regions, the score is above 50, which means that there are more optimists than pessimists, and this should be a good environment for running a profitable bank.

Also, if we look further into the oil companies, many would -- might expect the oil price of $65 to be challenging, but the Norwegian oil companies, they have adapted to a lower oil price by significantly reducing cost and still the investments on the Norwegian continental shelf remain at a high level. However, we have significantly decreased our exposure to the oil sector, which now accounts for approximately only 2% of our total portfolio. But this sector, which, of course, is still important to Norwegian economy, is also optimistic when it comes to activity, which, of course, is positive to us as a bank.

If we look at our total portfolio now, approximately 50% of that is in the western part of Norway with the counties, Vestland and Rogaland. The other 50%, Agder, Oslo, Akershus and also Telemark, Vestfold and Buskerud; and other stands for the other 50%. This means that the old Telemark and Rogaland from Stavanger, we have become really a bank for the southern part of Norway with much more diversification with respect to geography, less concentrated in certain industries. And altogether, we have become a very much diversified bank.

With the 50 branches, we have a very strong distribution network, also taking into consideration that we, together with the other SpareBank 1 banks, we have a state-of-the-art Internet banking services. That means that we are very well equipped for running a very efficient bank and also with a very high customer satisfaction due to the combination of our physical presence and state-of-the-art Internet services.

If we look at the main figures, we delivered a 13% return on equity this quarter, taking into consideration one-off costs related to the merger, which should be the last quarter with significant costs related to the merger and also goodwill that arise from the merger, the 13% can be compared to a 14% return on equity. Still impairments are low, 12 basis points this quarter, a tad higher than previous quarter, but a very strong underlying credit quality.

The lending growth remains high in the retail market, where the total growth in the market is around 4% and where our growth is at 6.1%. However, a bit lower growth in the large corporate market. But if you combine the corporate market and the SME and agriculture, it is approximately 1.0% annual growth. Very large growth on the deposit side. This is, of course, positive to our deposit-to-loan ratio. However, it has actually put some pressure on the interest margin as we have had some excess funding capital during the last 2 quarters.

Very high cost efficiency with a low cost-to-income ratio of 37%. And as I mentioned, as the background for the more -- the increased dividend policy, our capital -- common equity Tier 1 capital ratio stands at 18.5%, which is 1.0 percentage points above the requirement. Also with some positive migration when it comes to the requirements that will arise in the fourth quarter, we are very well positioned for a profitable organic lending growth and also a very strong capital distribution to our owners through the cash dividend and also a potential share buyback program.

And with those highlights, I will hand over to Mr. Eirik Borve Monsen, who will give us some more details on the figures. Eirik?

Thank you. In the third quarter this year, we have a pretax profit of NOK 2.12 billion, which is an increase of NOK 70 million from previous quarter and an increase of NOK 280 million from third quarter last year. And just remind you that in the third quarter last year, we had a one-off gain related to the merger between [indiscernible] which amounted to NOK 577 million.

When it comes to net interest income, we have one more interest day in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. Adjusted for that, we have more or less flat and stable development on the net interest income from the second to the third quarter. Increased volume that increases the net interest income, but that's more or less neutralized by a small reduction in the interest margin, explained by high excess liquidity in the quarter and also a negative effect -- equity effect on declining interest curve.

When it comes to commission and other income, we have a decline from the second quarter to the third quarter of NOK 80 million. This is explained or more than explained by the real estate agents and the accounting business, which have a natural seasonality low -- what do you call it?

Low season, yes.

Low season in the third quarter.

When it comes to financial investments, we have an increase of NOK 70 million from the second to the third quarter, explained by an increase in fair value of the certificate and bond portfolio and also increase in the fair value of the derivatives, including the basisswaps.

Operating expenses, I will come back to on the next slide. When it comes to impairments, as Inge already mentioned, we have NOK 150 million in impairments in this quarter. 88% of this is on the specific loans. Year-to-date, we have NOK 250 million in impairment, which amounts to 8 basis points.

If you then move to operating expenses. We are happy with the development of the operating expenses in this quarter. As you see on the upper right side in the mother bank or parent bank, we have a decline of NOK 12 million in the operating expenses from the second to the third quarter. And you also see on the lower right-hand side that we have only NOK 2 million increase in the operating expenses from the third quarter last year to the third quarter this year. This shows that we have good cost control, and it also shows that we now are starting to see the synergy effects also in the P&L.

And if you move to the next slide. As already mentioned, we increased the synergy ambition from NOK 300 million to NOK 450 million, an increase of 50% or NOK 150 million. Of this NOK 150 million, NOK 100 million is related to the operational synergies. We see that we are able to take out more effect from standardization of the bank products. And we have NOK 50 million related to the funding synergy that we see that we are able to take out even more reduction in funding, and this is also related to the CP program or certificate program that we are now starting in Europe.

When it comes to personal synergies, we are on track to reducing FTEs with 100 by the end of next year. And we will continue to work to deliver on these goals in the quarters to come. Just mentioned that we have had a successful technical merger. And with this, we also now have completed the total merger costs of the NOK 400 million, which we have guided on. So this is also now behind us when we end the third quarter.

We're also ending the quarter with a solid CET1 capital ratio of 18.5% with a good margin to the requirement -- minimum requirement of 17.53%. And in connection with this year's SREP process, we also expect by year-end to have a reduction in the Pillar 2 guidance from 1.25% down to 1% and also the Pillar 2 premium from 1.35% down to 1.13%. And based on this, we believe that we are well positioned for profitable growth and a strong capital distribution.

Thank you. And with these highlights, we believe that we are well positioned for a profitable growth. And of course, there are still some uncertainty in the more international space. But so far, Norwegian economy and regional economies have performed well and also the position of the bank to have profitable growth should be undoubtedly strong.

So with these concluding remarks, we will hand the word over to you. If you have any questions, please just raise your hand and Mr. Trond Inge will give you the word. Please.

Trond, you don't see any raised hands from your side?

No, I don't. So there's still a chance that...

Here is a question from Thomas Svendsen.

Yes, Thomas Svendsen.

On market shares -- gaining market shares, what are your thoughts in the corporate segment there for opportunity to gain market shares over the next 2 to 3 years?

We are definitely very well positioned with both the position as a bank and also our jointly owned investment banking company, SB 1 Markets that now has become a Nordic company. We should be well positioned for benefiting from each other's positions. And we believe that the growth in the corporate sector also will pick up again. And if not, we are, of course, in a position where we can reduce cost even further if it's necessary to kind of take down the capacity with respect to full-time employees.

Thank you, Thomas. Anyone else, please?

Yes, has a question from Herman Zahl. Please, Herman.

The capital position seems to be a bit stronger than expected this quarter. So just given your new and updated Pillar 2 requirements by year-end, what's sort of your desired capital level? Do you seek to have a buffer on top of the 17.6% long-term target?

Of course, in these capital requirements, there are a lot of buffers, and you might also discuss how much buffer should you have on the buffers. But I believe, over time, a buffer of approximately 50 basis points, 0.5% would be kind of convenient over time. And this should, of course, position us very well with what we -- where we stand today and the change of the requirement to have both a strong capital distribution with respect to cash and potential buybacks.

And also with the question from Thomas, we should also be well positioned for taking growth if that's possible. But we will remain very disciplined when it comes to capital and will not kind of take any growth that is not profitable with respect to pricing and risk reward. So capital discipline stands very high in our bank.

Okay. And then just on the -- since you state the ROE target is a long-term target, should we interpret that as into 2028 when you have fully implemented all the cost synergies?

We have -- formally, we have said to the market that we need 2025 and 2026 to come up to a full run rate with respect to taking out synergies. And the long-term ambition of the 14% should also be kind of viewed in correspondence with this. So as we -- where we stand today, the ambition and interpretation of that would be kind of 2027 -- yes, discussing the ambition.

Okay. And then just finally, referring to some of the comments given earlier today about no growth in large corporates, do you feel like -- is it some of the volumes going to the bond market that you would like to have yourself? Or have you been too constraining on yourself in hindsight?

That is one of the explanation. The kind of the reduction here is not a cause that we have kind of lost volumes to other banks. But of course, the access of capital in the bond market and the pricing is favorable for some of our companies. So that is also one of the explanations why we have some lending volume that goes out of our books.

But however, we are a large owner of the SB 1 markets, and this is kind of a natural flow where companies in some phases, they seek into bank financings, and in other phases, they seek into the bond market. And what is important is that we are well equipped to support our customers whether they choose the bank -- the lending market or the bond market as the alliance as such.

So we don't try to put any kind of limitations on our customers. If this is the right for our customers to do, then they choose the bond market, and we will also assist them with issuing debt in the bond market.

Thank you, Herman. Anyone else with questions? It seems like you are happy. I don't see any more hands. Trond, do you see, any more hands?

No, I don't. So I think we just conclude.

No. Okay, then I believe we can conclude this session. At any time, if you have any follow-up questions, you find our contact details at the end of the presentation, and we'll be happy to assist you any time. So thank you very much for taking your time, and have a good day. Thank you.