Thank you very much. Hi guys, welcome to this Nordnet Q4 report presentation. As one of you analysts wrote, it's time to say goodbye, at least for a while. Next slide, please. We're quite happy with Q4 and the whole of 2016. We have seen record high transaction volumes, a fantastic customer inflow, decent net savings, 30% up in lending volume, we have experienced price pressure, especially in the Swedish market, actually changed trading patterns from our customers. That has put pressure on transaction-related operating income. Thus, we have seen now for the full year a decrease in operating profit by 18%. The underlying business is strong. Next slide, please. Some highlights from Q4. As you all know, we have a public offer for all outstanding shares in Nordnet.
That offer has been prolonged now until the 8th of February, we can see the delisting in the near future. You might know that there is a call for an extra AGM the 21st of February. We can also expect a new board of directors after that AGM. You can read more about the public offer on nordnetab.com. The board of directors proposes a dividend of 1 SEK. There is a Swedish quality index, SKI, we are happy that we were named Sweden's most transparent bank. As you might know, our communication concept is transparent banking, we chose that after a market survey we did in all four markets, we asked people on the street, "What is your number 1 frustration with your financial services supplier?" They said, "Lack of transparency." We're being a bit opportunistic there.
As I said, we have seen a large influx of new customers, actually 16% growth in the customer base in the past 12 months, I'll come back to that further in the presentation. Next slide, please. Next slide as well. Customer and accounts. In 2016, we grew the customer base with 76,400 customers. That is actually a Luleå in terms of number of people. Actually in Q4, the number was 21,000, that is a full Kalix for those of you who know your geography. We still see Denmark with the highest growth of 25%. Norway is a runner-up with 16%. Finland is still strong with 17%, most happy are we with the growth in Sweden, which is 13%. From 2015 to 2016, we have taken that up from 8% to 13%.
The nominal number on the growth in the customer base in Sweden was 30,000. We are also happy that 2017 has started really strong when it comes to customer growth. Next slide, please. When it comes to net savings and savings capital, net savings, I said 2016 was a decent year. Denmark is still in the lead with a growth of 20%. Norway, the runner-up here as well with 19%. Finland, 2%, which is a low number, actually, given the circumstances and conditions in that market, it's decent. Sweden had a 7% growth in net savings if we adjust for the outflow from Söderberg & Partners. When it comes to total savings capital, we have a record high of 235 billion SEK. Next slide, please. As I said, we saw a record high in transaction volume in 2016.
Globally, that was driven by volatility, in turn, driven by some unexpected events like Brexit and the U.S. election. On more local level, we have seen a climbing oil price, and that has driven the transaction volumes in Norway up to record high levels. We also saw in the Danish market, the share collapse in Novo Nordisk. When it comes to the markets, we've seen an increase in number of transactions in Sweden of 13%, Norway, Finland plus minus zero, and Denmark actually a decrease of 13%. The stock fever that we have seen in Denmark the past years have actually traveled north to Norway. Next slide, please. When it comes to lending, as I've said, we have grown the total lending volume 30% over the past 12 months. We have also increased net interest income, as you might have seen.
Especially the growth in net interest income comes from margin lending and from mortgage. On the personal loans business, we see a very fierce competition and price pressure, and in combination with us driving the lower risk product in that portfolio, the Toppenlånet product. Net interest income from that portfolio is more or less flat. Next slide, please, and then I hand over to Robert to take us through the financials.
Thank you, Håkan, and please move on to the next slide, revenues. Now for a closer look at our financial performance during the final three months of 2016. Total revenues amount to SEK 340 million in the quarter. That is up 8% compared to Q3 and -3% compared to the same quarter 2015. Let's look at the different components within our revenue. Starting from the bottom, the blue part of the bar is net interest income. Net interest income increased slightly quarter on quarter to SEK 103 million. As you know, there are four parts to the net interest income. Looking at margin lending, it has developed nicely during the quarter, increasing lending volumes to SEK 5.1 billion at the end of the quarter, which is an increase of 8% quarter on quarter. The volume growth is slightly offset by lower rates.
Personal loans also show increasing volumes. We increased volumes by over 24% year on year and 11% quarter on quarter, having a total of SEK 3.1 billion lent out at year-end. The volume growth in personal loans is, however, offset by lower rates. Our mortgage product that was launched in Sweden earlier this year has grown to over SEK 900 million at the end of the period, and we expect it to continue on to grow in the same pace the coming quarters. We still have a slight positive contribution to net interest income from the liquidity portfolio, but the low and even negative market rates continue to be a challenge in this area. In total, the lending portfolio, excluding treasury, has increased with 30% year on year, as mentioned previously by Håkan. Next, the gray part of the bar represents commission income.
This is up SEK 50 million compared to the previous quarter. This is mainly due to the high activity in the stock market driven by the American election. Number of trades was up over 14% compared to Q3 2016. Net commission per trade is at a slightly lower level compared to Q3 and about SEK 4 lower compared to Q4 last year. This together with a shift in trading behavior towards customers trading in smaller tick sizes and a mix in between the countries contribute to the lower price per trade. Net commission total is SEK 157 million. That includes SEK 37 million in commission on mutual funds, slightly up from Q4 2015 as savings capital in mutual funds has increased to just over SEK 42 billion.
Moving on to other income. It includes FX income generated when customers trade outside their home market. It also includes license fees and other administrative fees. However, the main part of the increase from Q3 is related to the increased amount of cross-border trades. That covers the main revenue items. Operator, next slide, please. Expenses, including credit losses, amount to SEK 206 million for the quarter. That is a decrease of SEK 3 million year-on-year and at the same level as previous quarter. This is in line with our guidance in Q2 that cost for the coming quarter would be at Q2 level or lower for the full year. Expenses excluding credit losses increased by 6.8%. It is also in line with the guidance given at the start of the year of cost increase excluding credit loss for 2016 compared to 2015 of 6%-8%.
That's it for expenses. Moving on to the next slide, please. The operating profit for the fourth quarter is SEK 108 million, an increase of SEK 24 million or 21% from the previous quarter. For the full year 2016, operating profit is SEK 368 million. Next slide, please. We'll take a look at financial performance by market. These slides illustrate our business across the Nordics. As you can see in the charts, roughly 50% of our business come from Norway, Denmark and Finland. More than half of Nordnet's customers reside outside of Sweden. Also measured by operating profit, the share from Denmark, Norway and Finland is increasing. Year to date 2016, the three countries make up 43% of operating profit, more than double what it was two years ago.
Go to the next slide for a closer look at the income statement compared to corresponding periods 2015. Revenues for the three-month period, October to December 2016, total almost SEK 340 million. That is down 2.5% compared to the same period 2015. Full year 2016 shows a decrease compared to the full year 2015, with revenues down 3%. The decrease compared to 2015 is mainly within net commission income. Also to some extent within net interest and other income. Operating expenses amount to SEK 199.1 million and are slightly lower than compared to Q4 2015. For the full year, operating expenses are up by around 6.8% compared to 2015. The increase lies mainly within general administrative expenses, which includes personnel and other operating expenses, which includes marketing. Moving down to credit losses. They are all related to our personal loan business, that is our unsecured consumer lending.
Losses total almost SEK 7.2 million for the three-month period, and for the year, SEK 29.1 million. This is lower than 2015, and loss level is now at 1% for the full year. Partly, this is due to a lower risk level in the portfolio, which also affects interest rates. Tax is SEK 20.3 for the quarter, resulting in a tax rate of 18.2%. All that results in a profit for the period of SEK 87.4 million, leading to an EPS of SEK 0.50 per share. For the rolling 12-month period, EPS is at SEK 1.7 per share. Moving on to the statement of financial position. Total assets have increased since the start of the year to just above SEK 70 billion. This increase in assets is mainly a consequence of deposits from the public increasing. Also increasing are assets and liabilities where policyholders bear the risk.
That relates to customers' assets in pension insurance products. Increase in deposits have affected financial assets available for sale, and to some extent, financial assets held to maturity. Both those items refer to our liquidity portfolio. Shareholders' equity amounts to SEK 1.979 billion. That brings us to the next slide, the capital situation. Starting with our capital base, it is made up of shareholders' equity, which includes profit from this year. We deduct proposed dividend of SEK 1 per share, which amounts to SEK 175 million. Also deducting adjustments to valuation and intangible assets brings us to SEK 1.295 billion as capital base. Compared to the end of 2015, it's about SEK 155 million better. Risk exposure amounts for credit risk are up SEK 250 million compared to one year ago. This is due to increased credit volumes.
Market risk is a little bit lower and operational risk at the same level as compared to last year. Total exposure amounts to SEK 7.765 billion, that results in a total capital ratio of 16.7%. That was the end of my prepared remarks. I'll hand back to Håkan for a wrap-up.
Thanks, Robert. Next slide, please. What's next at Nordnet? We will continue to build and beef up our product development capability. The future lies in bringing good things out to our customers, and we want to do that in a higher pace than we have done before. We will continue to work on the beta site. As you know, we launched a beta for family and friends in Q4, and we will make that public in end of Q1. Continued focus on lending in this low interest rate environment. We make better use of the money lending them than having them on the treasury portfolio. Sorry about that, Robert. We will design and launch digital advisory services, both in our own services as well as partnered services. Of course, the new owners will come in. We will have a new board.
I will sit down with them and detail their further strategy. That's it for the presentation, we will open up for questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you do have a question for the speakers, please press 01 on your telephone keypad now. We have a question from the line of Monika Hernfeldt from SEB. Please go ahead. Your line is now open.
Hi, good morning.
Hi, Monika.
Hi. One question. We could see that the number of FTEs was down in the quarter, I'm just wondering why and if we could expect this to continue declining in the future regarding your investment plan or if FTEs should come up
We are planning to actually increase the number of FTEs, especially, as I said, in the product development. We are hiring as we speak, that is specifically coders or IT developers. They are not easy to find, we are happy that we have seen our employer brand being strengthened over the past years. It's becoming increasingly not so difficult to hire them. We have previously guided a cost increase of 6%-8% from 2016 to 2017. That is mainly actually people and IT developers.
Okay, thank you. Then a more high-level question. I'm wondering, we've been talking about the change customer behavior several quarters now during 2016, I'm just wondering, are you seeing any trend shifts here or are they continuing?
No, it's actually two things. One was we changed the price plan in Sweden in mid 2015. The effect of that was larger than we expected, we have seen that effect now flattening out. It has flattened out. The other more general change in trading pattern has actually stabilized. That doesn't mean that things can't happen, the price change flattening out the effect and the change trading pattern stabilized.
Okay. On the customer growth, are you growing more in younger ages or is it more evenly distributed?
It's actually evenly distributed. We welcome customers in all the age spans. Actually, when we go for digital advisory services, we might see that change, but it's too early to say, actually.
Okay. The loan losses this year, are they related to you lending out a higher average loans, or are you seeing a risk migration, if may so call it?
Yes, we see a risk migration to lower risk segments. It's actually our personal loans business is risk-based pricing. Now our low risk product, Toppenlånet, is the one that grows the most. The whole portfolio is actually decreasing in terms of risk. If we see increases in credit losses, that is because we see higher volumes, right? Lower risk, but higher volumes.
Okay.
That answer your question?
Kind of. The consumer lending, Konsumentkredit, is the only channel Nordnet customers, or are you cooperating with external distribution channels as well?
The latter. We distribute Toppenlånet, we distribute directly to our customers, but also via loan brokers. The other products, Konsumentlånet is mainly actually distributed via loan brokers.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Thank you. I remind you that if you would like to ask a question of the speakers, please press zero one on your telephone keypad now. Once again, that's zero one on your telephone keypad in order to ask a question. There appear to be no further questions at this point, please go ahead, speakers.
Okay, no further questions. It remains only for me to say it's been a pleasure working with you guys, and I'll see you around somewhere. Thank you very much.
Thank you. That concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect your line.