Haku

The future prospects for both corporate and government bonds raise questions. The reasons are narrow interest rate spreads for corporate bonds and low longterm interest rates for government bonds.

Payment flows increased in 2005 in Finland and other European countries. Payment card usage continued to expand in Finland. EMV chip technology14 is increasingly incorporated in international cards.

Developments in traditional banking have been favourable in Finland, as reflected in the steady development of net interest income. In contrast, banks other income has suffered from the weakening investment situation. The ...

Venture capital investments in Finland totalled EUR 369 million in 2004. Relative to GDP, these investments fell below the European average in 2004.

1 Financial intermediation 4 1.1 Current developments in loans for house purchase 4 1.2 Financial innovations in the current decade focus on credit risk transfer 6 2 Banks and insurance corporations 8 2.1 Strong first half ...

Profitability of domestic banking weakened further in January June 2009. Banks are operating in a difficult environment: net interest income declined due to low market interest rates, and the economic recession reduced the ...

On 1 December 2005, the European Commission issued a proposal for a directive on payment services20. The aim is to remove the remaining legal barriers and to create a single payment market in the European Union. The proposal ...

Globally speaking, the performance of banking groups has been relatively good. The large banks in the United States, Japan, China and Europe reported improved results and good profits. This is attributable to lower loan ...

Finnish banks profitability declined in 2008 from the record level in 2007. Results nevertheless remained reasonably good, considering developments in the operating environment. Capital adequacy remained strong by ...

The pre-tax profits of Finnish banking improved in the third quarter of 2009 by 16% on the previous quarter, as a result of a decrease in loan losses. By contrast, results for January September were 44% weaker than a year ...