NOBA Bank Group AB (publ) (STO:NOBA)
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May 13, 2026, 12:59 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q3 2025

Nov 11, 2025

Operator

Today, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the NOBA third quarter results 2025 conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one one on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, CEO Jakob Lundblad. Please go ahead.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Good morning, everybody. Glad to be here to present our first quarterly report as a listed company. Very happy about the outcome of the listing. Clearly, a big milestone and not least the confidence all stakeholders have given us. A side note to the listing itself is, of course, the increased brand awareness and direct access to the capital markets that we've spoken about in the past. During the quarter, we saw some of this, and as we issued some SEK 1.5 billion senior preferred bonds at good levels, lower than previous comparable issues. If we look at some of the headline financials, I think we can conclude a seasonally strong quarter, much as anticipated. Adjusted core operating profits at SEK 1.4 billion, up 40% year- over- year, and the core ROE of 28%. Really continuing our learning financial goals. Portfolio growth of 10% year- over- year.

Top line continuing book 16% versus 10%. Very happy to see that. We maintained a cost at 22%. Quarterly adjusted operating expenses came in at 10% year- over- year. And year to date, we are at 5%. In relation to cost, worth noting that our development will not be a straight line to our medium-term target of 20%, both as we invest in new business initiatives and also as we see some lumpy realization from cost takeout programs at the levels we now are at. Cost of risk continues to develop positively and came in at 2.8% in the quarter. Q2 and Q3, seasonally relatively strong quarter. We continue to see strong capital funding, 1% including deduction of dividend according to our dividend policy. So far, LCR at solid levels. To summarize, we have a solid quarter and a stable outlook.

However, worth bearing in mind that Q3 is seasonally strong and also noting that we expect cost growth to be transitionally above our underlying trend over the next quarters. With that introduction, I'll take you through some of the highlights in our segment, and after that, I'll check for more financials. Let's flip the page. We're looking at private loans, loan book of 11% year- over- year and 10% quarter-on-quarter in local currencies. FX impact negatively with 1 percentage point. Also growth momentum in Sweden and Denmark. Operating income came in at SEK 2,056 million, which is 14% up year-on-year, driven by lending portfolio and also improved NIM. We see that front book margin is now largely in line with back book margin in our banking. Gross income ratio rather stable. Cost of risk 3.3%, which compares with 3.9% same period last year.

A clear continuation of underlying improvements. However, again, worth pointing out that it is a seasonally strong quarter. All in all, giving us an adjusted ROE of 23%, which is a good 6%- 24%. Turning to credit cards, next slide. Loan book now at SEK 19.5 billion, 10% growth year-on-year, or 14% on a like-for-like basis if we adjust for FX and billing cycle that was changed in Germany last year in December. Quarter-on-quarter growth was 16%, with good contribution from all markets. Operating income of SEK 662 million, 23% growth year-on-year, driven by NCI volume growth and NIM. We believe that the positive NIM impact from lower base rates is now reflected as the cuts likely are behind us. Cost-income ratio lower than prior year, but higher than last quarter. Q2 was impacted by a one crossing prior agreements.

Cost of risk 2.9%, giving us an adjusted ROE of 46%, which is a solid tick up from prior year. Lastly, flipping page, looking at secured year-on-year growth of 6% from quarter- to- quarter, higher 10%. Happy to see that momentum is gradually picking up as property market is recovering. Operating income growing in line with portfolio. Cost of risk rather stable. Also here, adjusted ROE with a pick. With that, I will hand over to Patrick for financials.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Thank you, Jakob. I will begin and starting off on our financial performance. Overall, we've had a solid delivery in what is a seasonally strong quarter. I will go through the key lines in a bit more detail. The loan book came in at SEK 131.5 billion. There is a 10% FX adjusted loan growth, which is in line with our target level. Moving down towards the P&L, we had a solid NIM of 8.4% in the quarter. However, keep in mind that this is a seasonally strong quarter with 92 interest dates. On net fee and commission income, we have a strong credit card activity and improved supply of firms. Operating expenses, we had a 22% cost-income ratio in the quarter in line with our H1 level, and 5% growth year to date, and 10% in quarter in Q3 in isolation year-over-year.

Here we do expect to see slightly higher than historic growth in the next couple of quarters, which I will get back to. On credit losses, we see continued positive trajectory, and this is the sixth straight quarter with year-over-year fall in cost of risk. I will also here point out that Q3 is a seasonally strong quarter on credit losses. All in all, these things have an adjusted operating profit of SEK 1.4 billion for the quarter and a ROE of 28%. CET1 ratio is modest, but impacted by that we have in accordance with our stated dividend policy, been accruing for dividends in Q3. Next page, please. Going through the loan portfolio drivers briefly. In private loans, we continue to see solid growth, and we have 11% year-over-year growth FX adjusted. Credit card from this seasonal quarter in credit cards.

It is also reflected in that we had a 16% annualized growth quarter over quarter, but we had 14% growth year-over-year on a like-for-like basis. Lastly, in secured, we are clearly, as we have outlined before, seeing growth picking up, following a period of weaker growth, and have 10% annualized quarter over quarter and 6% year-over-year. All in all, this results in an FX adjusted year-over-year growth of 10%, consistent with our organic growth target. Moving on to NIM now. As mentioned before, Q3 is a seasonally strong quarter from a NIM point of view. Supporting very strong year-over-year NIM improvement here, supported by both falling base rates and strong new lending margins. Looking forward, we see a long-term repeat as base rate lowerings are largely complete and front book and back book margins are increasingly converging.

Also in fee and commission income, Q3 is a seasonally strong quarter thanks to high credit card activity. We have seen strong growth here over the last year, driven by high credit card activity, continued focus on ensuring fee income from credit cards, and improved supply of firms. We do expect to continue to see fee income outgrowing the loan portfolio going forward. I'll move on to OpEx. We have a cost-income ratio of 22% in the quarter and cost growth of 5% year to date and 10% in Q3 over year. Following a period of very strong cost development, we now foresee slightly higher growth in the next few quarters. We expect to continue to see operating leverage come through, so cost growth at a lower level than loan and revenue, but higher than the 5% year to date level we have seen.

Drivers are really twofold, as Jakob outlined. Need a margin, but it is impacting more the cost growth. We have investment in new products and AI, where costs are front-loaded. We have temporary lower effective cost takeout initiatives in the next few quarters. As realization here is a bit lumpy, this means that the evolution through our 20% cost-income ratio target will not be linear. We will have some periods with faster and some with slower cost-income ratio reduction. Loan losses, please. Next page. We see continued positive development here, and sixth straight quarter with year-over-year falling cost of risk. The LTM cost of risk is now at 3.2% and continuing to trend towards our communicated normalized range of 2.5%-3%. In the quarter in isolation, we had 2.8%, which is a reduction of 0.5% compared to Q3 last year.

However, looking forward here, I will just make the point that Q2 and Q3 are our seasonally strong quarters, and Q4 and Q1 are seasonally weaker. Next page, please. We have a stable capital development in the quarter and solid margins to requirements. We have a CET1 ratio of 14.1%, which is a 3.9% margin to requirements, and right in the middle of our 13%-15% target range. The 14.1% reported CET1 also includes accrual for dividends in accordance with our dividend policy. On the funding and liquidity ratios, we have continued to see strong ratios. We have an LCR of 171% and an NSFR of 112%. I will then hand it over to Jakob to wrap it up.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Thank you, Patrick. Quick wrap up by looking at performance versus financial targets. Loan book growth in line with financial targets. Multiple organic growth levers with strong support from embedded growth dynamics, targeting SEK 250 billion by year-end 2030. Cost-income ratio at 22% in the quarter, 1.1 percentage points lower than Q3 2024. Continued progress towards medium-term target of 20%. We point out that the already low levels we are at, given those, you should not expect a linear development going forward. Core ROE of 28%, solid progress towards our target of about 30%, a 5 percentage point improvement year-on-year. Getting to our target is really continuation of current growth, operational leverage, and cyclical trends. Also supported by our past performance and as-is segment marginal ROE. CET1, Patrick just spoke about it, 14.1% including deduction for dividend.

Dividend corresponding to 40% of adjusted core profit attributable to shareholders. Also worth repeating that we have a clear ambition to stay within our CET1 target and distribute excess capital. With that, we end the presentation, open up for Q&A. I know that we had problems with the line during parts of the call, so let us know if there is anything you want us to repeat. The floor is open, and Richard will help us here. The moderator will help us.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder, to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one and one again. We will now take the first question. One moment, please. From the line of Emil Jonsson from DNB Carnegie, please go ahead.

Emil Jonsson
Equity Research Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just starting off on the comments on higher expected cost growth. Do you still expect to meet your sort of mid-single-digit cost growth guidance on a year-on-year basis going forward, or is there any reason to sort of revise that for going forward?

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I mean, I can start, no reason to revise that going forward. In the report, we point towards the fact that we will see slower improvements over the coming quarters. We've had a very rapid and strong development over the last years. Given where we are at, already very low levels, we can't expect the same very straight and fast line. Partly, we invest in new initiatives, new business, and also in other things internally. We see that also effects from cost takeout programs go a bit slower at the point in time we are at.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah, as I was going to say, I'll just kind of add on that. Our cost-income ratio target is obviously 20% in the medium term. We've guided for kind of an underlying growth rate of around mid-single digits. I don't think you should expect that every individual quarter or even every individual year-over-year. If we look on a next few quarter basis, we expect to be above the mid-single digit in cost growth. Clearly, as I outlined, we do expect to continue to see operating leverage come through. Cost growth below loan and revenue growth and continued positive trajectory on the cost-income ratio.

Emil Jonsson
Equity Research Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay. Thanks for the clarification. When you mentioned investments into new business initiatives, could you elaborate a little bit on what you mean by that?

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I mean, we've communicated for quite some time now that we want to expand our secured offering. We are also looking into the SME segment. We are also investing in AI. There are plenty of things going on in the business.

Emil Jonsson
Equity Research Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Okay. Just a question on the secured segments. On your current markets, it seems to me like there should be very few barriers to growing that portfolio, especially on equity release. Is there anything sort of holding you back from accelerating there? I mean, in other words, how come it is not growing faster already than the current 6% year-on-year?

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I think the simple answer to that is that especially the Swedish housing market has been quite slow for quite some time. We see a pick up in the quarter. We're happy to see that. I expect that to continue. I mean, again, we're not here for the sake of growing. We want to grow profitable. So we're glad to see that it's picking up. And apart from that, I don't see any big obstacles.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. We expect to grow in line with the growth in the overall specialist segment in the market that we are in, in secured. I think our expectation for the market will be going at around 10% in those segments.

Emil Jonsson
Equity Research Analyst, DNB Carnegie

Just one final question on secured. Could you tell us something about the timeline for the secured rollout in the rest of the Nordics? For example, looking at the end of 2026, do you expect to have some sort of operation set up in all four countries by then, or is it sort of farther out into the future?

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Not in all countries. We expect to have launched something during 2026, but we'll come back to more firm timelines.

Emil Jonsson
Equity Research Analyst, DNB Carnegie

All right. That's all the questions from my side. Thank you very much.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Ulrik Zürcher from Nordea. Please go ahead.

Ulrik Zürcher
Research Analyst, Nordea

Yeah. Thank you for taking my question. Changing up the guidance on the OpEx a little bit, I'm more curious about the net interest margin. Has that sort of flattened now as well, or are there any other drivers in the more short-ish term that will pull it either up or down?

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

I think NIM, the last year, we've had an expansion of half a percentage point on NIM. It's clearly been quite a good momentum there. It's really been driven by two factors. It's been the base rate reductions and our strong new lending margins in private loans. As we look forward, if we break those up, clearly, base rate cycle, I think the expectation is that we're pretty much done there. We're not going to see any tailwind there. In regards to the margins, I think we're saying that they are converging. We still have some positive front book margin versus back book, but they are increasingly converging.

I think this gives us to a totality, which is kind of very much in line with what we said during Q2, which is that we have the fundamentals to see some very minor continued NIM expansion, but this kind of extreme expansion or very strong expansion that we've seen in the last 12 months, that is now over. It's more a case of basis points per quarter, not more than that.

Ulrik Zürcher
Research Analyst, Nordea

Okay. Just so we have the clear picture here, though. So you're growing maybe 10% or a little bit above, NIM flat, but fees will outgrow loan book and OpEx will grow a bit higher than mid-single digit next quarter, but still below revenue. Is that fair?

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

I mean, we're not going to say one specific quarter. We're going to talk about the trends. If we talk about the trends, I think we'll repeat what we said, which is we have a loan book target of 10%. NIM, we've had very strong expansion. That strong expansion will be much less accentuated going forward. On the cost side, we do expect to continue to see loans and revenue outgrow costs. Cost increase continues to go down, but a higher growth than the 5% that we've seen year to date.

Ulrik Zürcher
Research Analyst, Nordea

Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

I will say that is not a specific quarter. That is the trend that we expect to see in the next quarters. It's always going to be, there is always in practice going to be some deviations there because things happen. Non-linear things happen.

Ulrik Zürcher
Research Analyst, Nordea

Yeah. Also, the fee growth is very strong. And so that's sustainable.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

I mean, there's kind of three factors happening there, which I think we've gone through a little bit before. One is that we have new supplier terms, which are gradually coming through, which is having a tailwind through 2025 and 2026. Then we have our kind of strong growth within credit cards. Credit cards is our strongest growing product. That is the fee, that's our most fee-intense product. I mean, we are actively working to increase fee penetration on credit cards. All of that is supporting the fee growth. I think, obviously, the year-over-year here is quite substantial. I mean, it's not sustainable to keep that kind of growth for a longer term, but we are having strong momentum on credit cards.

Ulrik Zürcher
Research Analyst, Nordea

Great. Thank you.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

On fees.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Andreas Håkansson from SEB. Please go ahead.

Andreas Håkansson
Analyst, SEB

Yeah. Thanks and good morning, everyone. Two questions. First one is back on costs again. Could you tell us, I mean, the higher than mid-single digit is more than we expected. Could you tell us what has changed since we spoke last, and what are these new investments, and have you known about them for a long time, or what is it that is driving you to make those investments now? That is my first question. Second one is on deposits were declining a little bit in the third quarter. Could you tell us, is that the impact of Avanza falling out? If that is now fully done, and if that is the case, have you seen an increase in cost of deposits as you need to take it on on your own platforms? Thanks.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. Number one, I think on cost, there is nothing different from cost than I think we have seen before. We have two kind of trends here. We have cost-income ratio coming down, 20% target medium term. And then our kind of run rate growth rate is mid-single digit that we have experienced before, and we expect to continue seeing. There will not be an exact linear trend here. We will have some quarters which are above that, and we will have some quarters that are below that. If we look at the cost-income ratio target, we set that a year ago when we had a 24% cost-income ratio level. This year, we have taken down that cost-income ratio by 2 percentage points to 22%.

We expect the next few quarters that the takeout timing will be less accentuated. We'll have it come down less. I think it's really about that. We have the underlying trends, but individual quarters are always going to vary from that. I think specifically when we look at just in the very next few quarters, we have, as we mentioned, some kind of front-loaded areas that we're working in. We have AI, which is taking out costs, but it takes a few quarters before that has effect. We're adding our new, starting our new products, which are also driving a bit of cost when there is no revenue initially. I think it's very consistent with what we've been talking about, the cost base. We have two underlying growth drivers or two underlying trends: the cost growth and the cost income ratio.

We're always going to have some deviations when we look towards individual quarters. That's on cost. Jacob, do you want to add anything?

Andreas Håkansson
Analyst, SEB

Yeah. I mean, given where we stand at already 22%, it becomes a bit more lumpy at these levels, the takedown. I think it's nothing new. It's just a reflection of where we stand.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. Deposits not specifically Avanza-driven. We're always going to optimize across our funding sources. Individual quarter deposits can kind of grow or decline. There's no change in strategy. There's no change in trends. It's more kind of operationally just what happens to happen during a quarter.

Andreas Håkansson
Analyst, SEB

Are you done with Avanza now? I have all deposits left when you kept.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

No. No. Avanza is now a very small part. I think it's around 7% of our deposits. I mean, we're doing the first migration now in Q4, and we'll do the second migration number two in Q1.

Andreas Håkansson
Analyst, SEB

Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Shil Shah from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.

Shil Shah
Research Analyst, JP Morgan

Great. Thank you. Just one on private loans margin. You mentioned earlier that these margins have been converging. You have got a small differential between the front book and the back book now. If I take you back to a few quarters ago, that was maybe sitting at around 100 basis points. It sounds like it is much lower now. Just to understand what is driving this convergence in margins. I appreciate the back book is probably rising towards the front book. On the front book, are you seeing maybe more pressure than previously anticipated, either on pricing or anything else? That would be it. Thank you.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

I do not think we have seen necessarily anything deviating from what we have expected within private loans. The evolution that we are seeing within margins is consistent with our medium-term financial target of 30% return on timely equity or around 30% return on timely equity. Yes. It is correct that we are seeing gradually front book converging towards back book. There are really two drivers here, obviously, which one is back book coming up. That is kind of the one way. Then front book also, front book margins slightly coming down. That is kind of, I think we were in a, that is just kind of normal developments in the market. Credit losses are coming down, which naturally means that pricing in the markets comes down a little bit as well.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Patrick Bertelius from ABG. Please go ahead.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

Thank you. I will continue on cost, even though some of the cost questions have already been discussed. You highlight one of cost in connection with IPO here in Q3, but you also highlight that there will be some additional transformational cost in Q4. Could you add some flavor to that? Perhaps you mentioned it on your presentation, but the line was pretty bad, so I did not pick it up.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. Sorry about the line. No, I did not actually comment on it, but it is, I mean, we IPOed, I guess, the very, very end of September. The transformation cost that we see in Q4 are IPO cleanup costs. I mean, we have taken the vast, vast majority in Q3, but there are some work streams that continued into Q4 from a cleanup perspective. We will probably see, I mean, sub SEK 15 million of IPO costs in Q4 as well. Then we are done with all transformation costs.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

By that, you mean you shouldn't expect any in 2026?

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

No, no. No, we do not plan another IPO in 2026. We are done with transformation costs. Given that we did it so late in the quarter, there were still some cleanup costs going into Q4.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

Okay. Thank you. Then.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

It's purely related to that. It's purely related to the IPO, but there are some tail costs into Q4.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

Okay. Thank you. Moving on a little bit to strategy, as we have talked about cost here on the other questions. Could you talk a little bit about your views to broadening your funding base, perhaps by using covered bonds as a funding source in the secured segments, like some of your peers are doing? Your thoughts about that?

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

No, it's nothing we're planning for. We're not planning for covered bonds.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

Thank you. In terms of your ambitious 2030 lending target, could you talk about a little bit how you view the competitive landscape and to grow with these verticals within secured and SME and your thoughts on M&A?

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of what we need to achieve is embedded growth, essentially continuing doing what we're doing. With the 10% growth, we end up at 220, something like that. That gives us a gap of 30 that we need to plug either by higher organic growth with new initiatives and potentially also some M&A. No news there, really. We're happy to be back in the business to focus on the business. We did an IPO 1.5 months ago. Nothing has changed since then.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Same drivers as them.

Patrick Bertelius
Analyst, ABG

Okay. Fair enough. Thank you. That's all for me.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Shrey Srivastava from Citi. Please go ahead.

Shrey Srivastava
Analyst, Citi

Hi, and thank you very much for taking my questions. Two for me, please. The first is just a follow-up on the Avanza deposits. As I recall, previously, you said you expected to retain a significant percentage of these deposits. However, I believe the Avanza data shows that it's internalizing sort of most of the external deposit outflows. Is your expectation still to retain a significant proportion of the Avanza deposits? And my second.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I can elaborate on it. Please take the second question.

Shrey Srivastava
Analyst, Citi

Yeah. Sure. Thank you. My second question is, do you have any updates for us on the Swedish FSA's sort of consultation or review into IFRS 9 modeling for the banks and its potential impact on yourselves? Thank you very much.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I think both questions are for you, Patrick.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. Avanza, yeah. We still have the same view around what Avanza, on how much of the Avanza deposits we will keep post-migration. Kind of no changes there. I think, and you're kind of the other side of the coin, what Avanza is seeing is clearly that there were several banks present at Avanza. Some have decided to completely discontinue and terminate all those deposits, and some have chosen to transfer them. I think that probably is the reason for the difference, that in some banks, there will be a 100% retention, and some there will be a lower percentage retention for Avanza, which I would guess is the explanation for the different pictures here. If we go to your second part around the Swedish FSA review, not really any news there.

I think we, and I'll state the same thing that we did before. This is a thematic review by the Swedish FSA where we are one of many banks included, where the main purpose of the Swedish FSA is to build an understanding of how this works within banks. I think it's also consistent with EBA-identified areas that are kind of relevant for thematic reviews.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I would be more surprised if we were not included in a review like that than.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Exactly. I think there's nine banks included. I would have been very surprised if we were not included.

Shrey Srivastava
Analyst, Citi

Brilliant. That's all for me. Thank you very much.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We will now take the next question from the line of Sofie Peterzens from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Sofie Peterzens
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Yeah. Hi. This is Sofie from Goldman Sachs. Thanks a lot for taking my question. Just going back to the fees, that was extremely strong. In terms of the fee growth going forward, should we kind of expect the new level that we saw in the third quarter to be the runoff or runway level, or should we expect any of the third-quarter fees to potentially drop off, or how should we think about the kind of fee outlook going forward? My second question would be on your stage three loans. They increased 5% quarter-on-quarter. How should we or what kind of drove the increase in the stage three loans? Could you maybe talk about what plans you have for MPL sales and how much MPLs you sold in the quarter? Thank you.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. I mean, starting off on the first one, which is around fee income, I mean, Q3 is our strongest quarter from a fee point of view. That is, it is clearly not a quarter that is going to automatically repeat the next few quarters. I think the other aspect in fees is that there is some quarterly volatility there. It is really a case of looking over a few quarters and building the trend from that on fees. Q3 is the strongest quarter for fees, and really look at the few quarters when you look at expected evolution there. As we have outlined, there are very strong fee drivers here. We have the change supplier agreements. We do have strong growth within credit cards, and we do have improving penetration on fees within credit cards.

A lot of good drivers, but it's kind of clearly the year-over-year growth in Q3 was very strong, and Q3 is a seasonally strong quarter. It's not like I don't think you shouldn't extrapolate that quarter. That was on fees. On stage three, I think the stage three ratio, which is what we kind of should look at, is very stable. It's been stable now a few quarters at around 8.5%. Net stage three as percent of the loan portfolio. It is normal that that evolves as the loan book evolves. We do expect to see stage three growth in absolute terms.

With regards to the ratio, we have stabilized at around the mid-8s now, and we do see some gradual reduction over time as our sales strategy comes through. There are not going to be big movements there. With regards to sales, as planned, we did not do any sales in Q3, but we will do sales in Q4 that we are very advanced around. We expect to make a good amount of sales during Q4.

Sofie Peterzens
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Thank you. That's very clear.

Operator

Thank you. As a reminder to ask a question, please press star one and one on your telephone. We will now take the next question from the line of Bettina Thurner from BNP Paribas. Please go ahead.

Bettina Thurner
Research Analyst, BNP Paribas

Yeah. Hi, good morning, and thanks for taking my question. I just wanted to clarify a few things on the net interest margin, please. Following up on Shreya's question about the front book margin in private loans, can you tell us where that currently sits, how much of that repricing is still left? The second one is on the credit cards, a similar question. Obviously, the policy rate cuts are now mostly reflected. What about cohort maturation? I think you said previously around 70 basis points could result in an uplift on the NIM for credit cards also there. Thank you.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Yeah. Now, private loans, we're not kind of going to provide running commentary in front book as a back book margins, but it has been gradually converging. It's still positive. It's still positive, but the majority of the kind of 1% that we saw a year ago has now kind of been trended away. That is what we'll say about the private loan margin. On credit cards, absolutely, there are two kind of drivers on credit card margins. First one is that we've been supported by lower base rates. That is clearly kind of coming towards the end now. We do see that we've had very strong credit card growth the last few years. It takes time for the credit card portfolio to mature. We do expect to see cohort maturation, a positive effect of cohort maturation over the next few years in credit cards. There is no change there.

Bettina Thurner
Research Analyst, BNP Paribas

Okay. Very helpful. Thank you. If I can just ask one more strategic question. I think on the SME entry, I do not know if you have given any input during the presentation, but if you just could talk to us about anything that has changed in your thinking, whether there is anything you are already looking at, just your plans there. Thank you.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

I mean, nothing has really changed so far. We think it's an interesting opportunity, the SME market. When we enter it organically, it's a safe bet to think that we would start with the S of SME, which is quite close to home, quite similar to what we do on the private lending side. I think there's a lot of cross-learnings. There's a lot of data advantages on that. And then over time, let's see whether there are any interesting M&A opportunities as well to complement the strategy with.

Bettina Thurner
Research Analyst, BNP Paribas

Nothing happening so far yet, let's say.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Yep.

Patrick MacArthur
CFO, NOBA

Nothing. We're in the organic startup phases of it. If we can accelerate with M&A, great. If we did organically, also great.

Bettina Thurner
Research Analyst, BNP Paribas

Okay. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I would like to hand back over to management for closing remarks.

Jakob Lundblad
CEO, NOBA

Okay. Very good. Good to have you on the line. Good to have presented the first quarterly report as a listed company. I appreciate your time, and you know where to find us if there are any additional questions. Thank you, guys.

Operator

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

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