Norwegian Finans Holding ASA : STRONG GROWTH AND EARNINGS IN BANK NORWEGIAN

The Group`s comprehensive income in the first quarter amounted to NOK 411 million, a decrease of NOK 32 million from the fourth quarter. The underlying earnings development is satisfactory, and is driven by strong loan growth, stable margins, good cost control and stable credit quality. The earnings growth is characterized by seasonal and non-recurring effects in the fourth quarter and in the first quarter.

The strong customer and loan growth continued in the first quarter, with a loan growth of NOK 1.5 billion, while deposits increased by NOK 2.1 billion. Adjusted for currency effects, loangrowth increased in the first quarter. The bank recruited 83,000 new customers in the first quarter.

At the end of the first quarter, the bank had a customer base of 1,316,100 customers, which can be broken down into 959,400 credit card customers, 177,500 loan customers and 179,200 deposit customers.

The bank has implemented the IFRS 9 accounting standard as of the first quarter of 2018. IFRS 9 requires that loan loss provisions are calculated using different assumptions about future loan loss development. The implementation of IFRS 9 showed a reversal of loan loss allowance of NOK 72.8 million at year-end, which resulted in an increase in equity of NOK 54.6 million as of January 1, 2018.

Bank Norwegian started its operations in November 2007 and offers consumer loans, credit cards and deposit accounts to retail customers distributed through the Internet in the Nordic market. Bank Norwegian offers, in cooperation with the airline Norwegian, a combined credit card and reward card. The bank started operations in Sweden in May 2013. In December 2015 the bank launched consumer loans and deposit accounts in Denmark and Finland, while credit cards were launched in June 2016.

Bank Norwegian is a digital bank that offers simple and competitive products to the retail market. The strategy is based on leading digital solutions, synergies with the airline Norwegian, attractive terms for our customers, cost-effective operations and effective risk selection.

For further information, see Report for the first quarter 2018 and Investor Presentation for the first quarter 2018, available at:

https://www.banknorwegian.no/OmOss/InvestorRelations

For any questions please call:

CEO Tine Wollebekk; phone: +47 40805557

CFO Pål Svenkerud; phone: +47 93403904

https://www.banknorwegian.no

This information is disclosable under the Norwegian Securities Trading Act section 5-12.

Report for the first quarter 2018 Norwegian Finans Holding ASA
Report for the first quarter 2018 Bank Norwegian AS
Norwegian Finans Holding ASA first quarter 2018 results presentation

---

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.
Source: Norwegian Finans Holding ASA via GlobeNewswire
HUG#2190206