Good morning. Welcome to Oma Savings Bank's First Quarter Results Presentation Webcast. My name is Pirjetta Soikkeli, and I'm Head of Communications. We will soon start the event with the presentation by our CEO, Karri Alameri. After that, we will continue with a Q&A session. Please remember to dial into the telephone conference if you wish to ask questions. With that, Karri, please welcome on stage.
Good morning. Let's take a closer look at the business development through the numbers, starting with revenues. The year 2026 began in an operating environment characterized by geopolitical tensions, modest economic growth, and uncertainty in the financial markets. Despite the challenges, OmaSp delivered performance in line with expectations in the first quarter, and comparable profit before tax improved from the comparison period. New loan volumes returned to growth, and fee and commission income developed as planned, while net interest income declined as expected. Thanks to our disciplined efforts, we also continued to reduce costs. Impairment losses on financial assets decreased. The weak performance of the Finnish economy, particularly in the real estate market, continues to reflect to be reflected in non-performing exposures. Our capital position strengthened further, and our strong balance sheet provides a solid foundation for executing our strategy of growth.
Comparable operating income decreased by nearly EUR 10 million, representing a decline of approximately 16% from the comparison period. Net interest income continues to form a significant component of OmaSp's total income, currently accounting for around 70%, compared with nearly 80% corresponding period last year. In the Q1, net interest income fell by approximately 24% year-on-year. This decline was primarily driven by relatively low market interest rates and a reduction in the loan portfolio. The average margin of the loan portfolio remained almost unchanged during the reporting period. Let's then take a look at fee and commission income. Total fee and commission income increased by approximately EUR 15.8 million in the first quarter, representing a growth of approximately 7% over the comparison period.
Fee income from cards and payment services grew by almost 9% compared to Q1 in the previous year, amounting to EUR 8.9 million. The growth in payment services income was supported by pricing changes implemented in the final quarter of 2021. Fund-related fees increased by almost 4% year- on- year, reaching EUR 2.1 million. Fees from lending activities rose by over 4%, totaling to EUR 2.1 million. Overall net fee and commission income amounted to EUR 13.4 million, which is an increase of over 7% compared with the corresponding period last year. Regarding expenses, I would like to highlight the company's disciplined efforts, which enabled us to further reduce our costs.
Comparable operating expenses declined to EUR 28.6 million, which is a decrease of over 11% compared with the Q1 in 2025. Personnel expenses increased by about 12% to EUR 11.1 million. At the end of the period, there were 634 employees, of whom 43 are fixed-term contracts. Other operating expenses decreased by over 30% to EUR 15.5 million. This includes regulatory fees, office and marketing expenses, and costs related to business premises in our own use. In the comparison period, additional costs were recorded relating to risk management development projects, regulatory processes, and the implementation of the plan for the controlled winding down portfolio. Let's then take a look at the development of our loan portfolio.
In January to March, new lending increased by almost 64% year-on-year to EUR 221.7 million. During the first quarter, new lending grew by almost 4% compared with the fourth quarter of 2025. The SME customer loan portfolio declined by about 16%, affected primarily by risk measures and exits from higher risk exposures and implementation measures related to the controlled winding down portfolio. Mortgage loan lending accounts for about 60% of our total loan portfolio. The mortgage portfolio decreased by 3% over the past 12 months, mainly reflecting subdued demand to the broader economic development. As a result, the total loan portfolio before expected credit losses declined by 0.6% in the first quarter. At the end of March, the total loan portfolio stood at EUR 5.8 billion.
This slide shows the development of our non-performing exposures. Unfortunately, the weak Finnish economy, and particularly the subdued real estate market, continued to be reflected in our non-performing exposures, especially on the older loan stock. Growth in non-performing exposures was concentrated among retail customers and companies in the property sector. Collection processes have lengthened, especially due to extended realization periods for property used as collateral. The inflow of new non-performing loans has, however, declined. At the end of the period, non-performing exposures amounted to EUR 543 million, corresponding to about 9% of the loan portfolio. In line with the plan confirmed at the end of 2025, we are continuing our systematic efforts to reduce non-performing loans.
During the current year, we are particularly focusing on enhancing early stage collection measures while continually evaluating opportunities to reduce non-performing exposures through various restructuring arrangements. When we take a look at impairment losses on financial assets, the level has stabilized. During the first quarter, impairment losses decreased compared with the corresponding period, totaling to EUR 7.4 million. Of this, expected credit losses accounted for EUR 7.1 million. In the comparison period, updates to the ECL calculation model increased the figure by EUR 8.5 million, and previous related to the controlled winding down portfolio amounted to EUR 5.7 million. The net realized credit losses declined considerably year-on-year, amounting to EUR 300,000 in Q1 compared to EUR 1.2 million in Q1 2025 . OmaSp financial position is strong.
During Q1, our capital position continued to strengthen. At the end of March, the total capital ratio stood at 19.4%, and total accumulated equity amounted close to EUR 630 million. Risk-weighted assets declined to below EUR 3 billion, primarily driven by a reduction in total exposures. The group's own capital amounted to some EUR 580 million. This exceeds the total capital requirements by EUR 167 million. Overall, our capital and liquidity position remains very strong. Let us take a look at our financial targets. In January 2026, the board of directors confirmed the company's updated strategy and financial targets for the period 2026- 2029. Our objectives are to grow responsibly and profitably, diversify our income streams, and strengthen personal service as a key competitive advantage.
We aim to recognize and establish nationwide. Sorry. We aim to be recognized and established nationwide as the bank that combines the highly personal service and a small bank with the reliability of a solid bank, and the efficiencies that our more unified operating model allow us. We monitor progress on regulatory a regular basis, and after Q1, our position is as follows: Comparable return on equity, 7% with a target of over 14%. Comparable cost-to-income ratio, 57.5% with a target of below 50. Annual growth in fee and commission income, 7.4% with a target of over 10%. At the end of 2025, our Net Promoter Score was 40. With the NPS target set at above 50.
The CET1 ratio stood at 18.5% at the end of March, which is 7.2 percentage points above the target. The outlook for 2026 is unchanged. The outlook continues to be impacted by the overall housing market environment, and especially by how the market conditions will impact the investment appetite among SMEs. Net interest income is expected to decline compared with the previous financial year due to lower market interest rates and changes in the loan portfolio. Cost increases have stabilized, and we expect a stable cost development. Impairment losses on financial assets are expected to remain below the level of the previous financial year. We expect comparable profit before tax for 2026 to decrease slightly compared with the comparison period.
As a summary, I want to highlight, in line with our strategy, we have successfully increased net fee and commission income across a broad range of areas, particularly driven by strong development card and payment related fees as well as fees from funds. We will continue our focused efforts to grow our fee income and deepen customer relationships across both households and growing businesses. New lending volumes increased significantly between January and March, and we hope to see pent-up housing demand to begin to materialize, supporting a recovery in the housing market. We are systematically working to increase our market share in our selected customer segments. Although impairment losses decreased in the first quarter, the weak economic environment continued to be reflected in non-performing exposures. We are continuing with our determined effort to reduce non-performing loans.
The strategy of growth that has, was confirmed at the beginning of the year provides a clear direction for the coming four-year period. Despite ongoing uncertainty in our operating environment, we remain committed to systematically executing our strategy and creating value for our shareholders. With a strong balance sheet, a clear strategy, and a customer-focused operating model, OmaSp is well-positioned to support its customers and deliver sustainable, profitable growth. We are building an even stronger bank by improved efficiency and enhanced customer experience across all our service channels. With that, I hand back to Pirjetta.
Thank you, Karri. We will now move on to the Q&A session. I remind you, if you wish to ask questions, you need to dial into the telephone conference. Operator, we would be ready to take the questions.
The next question comes from Hans Rettedal Christiansen from Danske Bank. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. Just one or two from my side. First one on volume growth. I was wondering, could you elaborate a little bit on the growth in new lending? Sort of where is it coming from? How is it? Did it pick up a lot in the beginning of the year and then, sort of the growth coming down towards the end of the quarter? Just kind of the trajectory that we should be penciling in there, and especially considering how should we think about the growth in new lending versus when we can see kind of net lending also turning? That's the first question.
Thank you. Regarding new lending, of course, as we reported, the growth has been quite good to say in these words if you compare to last year. Especially if we look into the SME parts where we were quite cautious last year, we have been improving greatly on that part. What comes to household loans or mortgages, we have also improved, but there we can say that the current market situation still puts a lid on the growth of the balance sheet or loan portfolio. I'm not sure if this already answered the second part of your question. We can also say, of course, that we aim during this year to be in a situation where the net balance sheet, net loan portfolio starts to increase.
Okay. Thank you. My second question, which Understand it's sort of difficult to answer, but just trying to get a little bit more color on it in terms of your guidance that you issued at the beginning of the year. It'd be interesting to hear how you're feeling around it given how much has happened throughout Q1 when it comes to sort of geopolitical and in the general economy in Finland. Are you kind of more confident or less confident going into Q2 and into the summer?
Looking into our own operations, we are still very confident that we are on the right path, but of course then the uncertainty comes from the market environment where we unfortunately, as many other players also cannot estimate what it how it will affect the especially on the housing market. That's basically the largest question mark for us currently.
Okay. Thank you. My final question just on the NPLs. You mentioned sort of longer collection times in Finland through Q1, at the same time your key priority is to sort of improve early collection in your own portfolio. How do I marry kind of those two comments together?
If we look into the NPEs, NPL or NPE net, NPEs, we try to say that especially the increases are taking part in the older loan stocks, and if we look into the current one or two years, we are confident that the, or the figures are also showing that the loans granted are on a healthy basis. Of course also in all things we are focusing on the not to continue to growth in this older stock either. Hopefully this gives a little bit flavor to your question.
Yes. Thank you very much. That was very clear. That's all from my side. Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers.
Thank you. Okay. I will end with a reminder, we are holding our very first capital markets day on 19th of May, and you are warmly welcome to attend here in Helsinki or via webcast. More information is available at our website. We very much look forward to welcoming you to our CMD. We are here for you. If you have any further questions, do not hesitate to come back to us. Thank you for being with us today. Bye now.