EUROPE – The wealth management arm of Nordic banking and financial services group Nordea saw assets under management (AUM) fall by €4.1bn due to the impact of increased volatility on the company’s risk assets over the second quarter.

The drop in AUM represented 1% of total assets, with net inflows of €2.9bn taking some of the bite out of a €7bn loss over the period, Nordea said. 

The main contributors to inflows over the second quarter were Nordic Retail funds, with a net inflow of €900m, and Private Banking, with a net inflow of €1.1bn.

The Institutional Sales segment saw inflows of €800m over the period.

Wealth Management income was €385m, up 17% from the same quarter last year and 6% from the previous quarter.

Operating profit for the wealth management business was €188m, up 44% from the same quarter last year and 9% from the previous quarter. 

Total expenses decreased 3% from the same quarter last year and were unchanged from the previous quarter due to a strict focus on costs across all business units, according to Nordea.

Life & Pensions’ closure of a branch in Lithuania will result in full-year cost savings of €1.5m in 2013, it said.

In other news, Swedish banking group SEB reported that rising long-term interest rates and declining stock markets had a negative impact on traditional portfolios during the second quarter.

Operating profit for SEB’s unit-linked business the first six months decreased by 14% compared with last year.

Unit-linked represents 63% of total income and 88% of sales.

Income from unit linked increased by 2%, whereas income from traditional and risk insurance decreased by 13%.

Total premium income relating to new and existing policies amounted to SEK15.5bn (€1.8bn), 13% higher than last year.

The improvement is primarily a result of strong growth at the company’s business in Ireland, it said.

In Sweden, Life continued to be one of the market leaders within the unit-linked segment.

However, operating profit decreased due to lower income from traditional and risk insurance.

The fund value related to the unit-linked segment amounted to SEK144bn, SEK12bn higher than a year ago and up SEK6bn over the first six months.

SEB reported SEK4bn in inflows over the first half of the year, bringing total assets under management amounted to SEK455bn.