Aktia Launches a Change Program to Accelerate its Updated Strategy and Long-Term Financial Targets and Updates its Dividend Policy
https://view.news.eu.nasdaq.com/view?id=bb44bcf60aa5d808236c46837ed3a445b&lang=fi&src=listed
Aktia Bank Plc
Stock Exchange Release
February 27, 2025 at 1:00 a.m.
Good morning!
Today, we are organizing an event where we will discuss our strategy, the program launched to accelerate it, and our long-term financial targets.
Welcome to join us online!
/Aktia IR
Investor Event 27 February 2025:
Aktia invites investors, analysts, and media representatives to an investor event on 27 February 2025, starting at 12:30 p.m. During the investor event, Aktia’s CEO Aleksi Lehtonen, together with other members of Aktia’s Executive Committee, will present the company’s updated strategic priorities, the change program to accelerate the implementation of the strategic plan, and new financial targets. The event will be held in English.
The investor event can be followed live via webcast or viewed as a recording afterwards at Investor Event. During the event, there will be an opportunity to ask questions to Aktia’s management. The presentation material will be available at the start of the event on Aktia’s website at [www.aktia.com]
Without commenting on this company specifically, generally the biggest impact with CRR3 is the floor for risk-weighted assets under the IRBA (Internal Ratings Based Approach) at 72.5% relative to the standard approach. My understanding is that this will not significantly cut from the average IRBA bank, because it’s difficult to get all models approved without additional multipliers mandated by the authorities. The floor will also only be fully in effect by 2028.
Banks will certainly incur many one-off and permanent costs as many changes need to be made to processes and reporting. These, of course, also apply to the standard approach.
New dividend policy:
Updated dividend policy: Aktia intends to distribute approximately 60 percent of the profit for the financial year to its shareholders.
In addition, excess capital may be distributed to shareholders, for example, through extra dividends or share repurchases.
The former is the same as before, and the latter is new. It remains to be seen if share repurchases will be made already this year.
Here are Kassu’s comments on Aktia’s updated strategy. 
Aktia published its updated strategy this morning, which, as expected, focuses on growing its asset management. At the same time, the bank updated its financial targets and ambitiously raised its return on equity target to over 15%. Aktia is organizing an investor event this afternoon, where it will elaborate on its strategic focus areas, financial targets, and the state of its business. You can follow the event, starting at 12:30 PM, here.
This is a good question. Contrary to what I wrote in the morning comment, the most recent capital adequacy at the end of last year was 3.3% above the requirement, not 1.8%. So we are within the range. We will try to get more precise answers today on how to interpret this rather wide range, i.e., whether excess capital will be distributed only when we are above this, or if the midpoint is a better estimate of the bank’s target state.
Our intention is, in a normal year, to be close to the upper end.
Kasper interviewed CEO Aleksi Lehtonen and Head of Wealth Management Kati Eriksson.
Aktia launched new strategic focus areas for the next five-year period and a growth program, guided by which growth will be accelerated. Aktia’s CEO Aleksi Lehtonen and Head of Wealth Management Kati Eriksson commented on the investor event in an interview with analyst Kasper Mellas.
Topics:
00:00 Introduction
00:18 Cornerstones of the Strategy
01:37 Accelerating Sales
04:04 Change Program
05:40 Expanding Wealth Management to a Wider Audience
07:42 Customer Service
09:20 Premium and Private Banking Clients in Focus
10:59 Wealth Management Product Offering
12:16 Investment Returns in Recent Years
13:47 Banking Business
15:40 Improving Cost Efficiency
17:08 Corporate Arrangements
18:07 Return on Equity Target
20:06 Profit Distribution
Here are Kassu’s comments on Aktia’s Investor Day.
The key themes of Aktia’s updated strategy – asset management growth and improving cost efficiency – are, in our opinion, correct, and the bank’s direction seems clearer than before. However, we did not see an immediate need for forecast changes, as the likelihood of success for the currently quite abstract measures is challenging to assess at this stage. In particular, the profitability target seems overly optimistic in our view. Ultimately, time will tell to what extent the words of the strategy update turn into actions.
Why is the solvency buffer desired so much higher than the requirement, if in the industry and competitive landscape (less than) half is sufficient?
Hi @Artisti,
Defining the CET1 target is indeed a balancing act between, on the one hand, having sufficient, resilient, and growth-enabling solvency, and on the other hand, the most efficient possible use of capital.
In Aktia’s case, it is worth remembering that the minimum requirement is one of the lowest in the market, so even with a 4 percentage point buffer, the CET1 ratio (with the current minimum requirement) is about 12.5. And 12.5 is not unusually high in the market.
Regards,
Oscar / Aktia IR
Aktia’s CEO Aleksi Lehtonen was speaking at the Investor Day about the company as an investment in English.
Aktia’s CEO Aleksi Lehtonen will participate in the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion’s Stock Exchange Evening on March 25, 2025, together with Elisa’s CEO Topi Manner and Verkkokauppa.com’s CEO Panu Porkka. At the Stock Exchange Evening, the CEOs will present their companies as investment targets and answer audience questions. The event will be moderated by Sari Lounasmeri, CEO of the Finnish Foundation for Share Promotion.
Aleksi will discuss, among other things, these themes: Why invest in Aktia? What are Aktia’s long-term goals and how will they be achieved? What does the journey to becoming a leading wealth manager look like, and what is Aktia’s growth program that will accelerate the pace of this journey?
You can participate on-site or via webcast. Registration link: Pörssi-ilta Helsinki (Elisa, Aktia, Verkkokauppa.com)
Here is Juho Toratti’s article from Aktia.
However, the decline seen by Aktia investors over the past week offers an opportunity to add the stock or at least consider it. The company’s profit is expected to decrease in the current fiscal year from last year, but the main reason for the decline is the fall in interest rates. There is reportedly nothing broken in the company’s business, and the company’s own outlook is quite good, with the exception of net interest income. Aktia operates with a stable balance sheet, and its comparable return on equity was at a good level of 15.0 percent in 2024. Based on the 2025 earnings forecast and the closing price on April 7, Aktia’s share has a P/E ratio of 7.1.
CEO Aleksi Lehtonen’s overview from last week’s Annual General Meeting! 
Aktia announced the day before yesterday that it would initiate change negotiations and a reorganization of some functions. According to my interpretation, no jobs are intended to be cut, but because the nature of some job tasks will change substantially, change negotiations must be initiated. The purpose of these measures is to clarify the organization and focus operations in line with the new strategy emphasizing premium and private banking clients. These are, in themselves, very sensible-sounding goals.
In addition, I jotted down some thoughts in the Nordea thread about the effects of a potential trade war on banks’ outlooks. These also apply well to Aktia, although it should be noted that due to the higher weight of wealth management, the development of assets under management plays an even greater role for Aktia. Assessing capital market development and general sentiment is among the most challenging tasks, but generally, increasing uncertainty does not help either of these.
These kinds of things bother me a bit: Aktia’s Communications Director Mia Smeds says that communication started three weeks before the service interruption. A four-day service interruption and cards might work, might not work (depending on the card and customer type, etc.). I know several acquaintances who have only been aware of the interruption for a couple of days. If such a long interruption in banking services is known, one would think the publicizing would start a bit earlier than three weeks before the shutdown…
Edit: news link, of course: Aktian palveluihin tulee monen päivän katko – ”Hyvin poikkeuksellista” | Talouselämä
I personally received both an email and even a letter home about the matter well in advance, so I don’t know who this would come as a complete surprise to. A large part of the cards, for example, still work normally, so no big deal.
Primarily, this isn’t the best advertisement for the bank, especially if the announcement went out only 3 weeks prior to some, and even later to others. If it’s known that it falls on holidays and we’re talking about a multi-day outage, not just a normal weekend maintenance break, one would think it would have been known earlier and communication would have been thoroughly prepared. In my own work, I’d be lucky to even implement an hour-long break for services that only concern internal company services without a month-long announcement circus…
IS readers were enraged by the timing of Aktia’s maintenance break - Ilta-Sanomat
I am not an Aktia customer, but I am a shareholder.
Having been involved in several bank mergers / migrations, I don’t quite understand such a long break when this is only about internal operations. Last year’s Handelsbanken —> S-pankki transfer was done over a weekend, and in that case, all of the customer’s products/holdings were transferred to another bank 
.