Due to a growing number of confiscated properties in the Baltic States, Swedbank "will become a real-estate company" in the region, the bank’s CEO said.

In the trail of the financial crisis in the Baltic States, Swedbank, the region's largest lender, is likely to end up with large assets in real-estates, confiscated from customers that fail to pay interest.

“We will become a real estate company in these countries within a few years”, said Swedbank’s CEO Michael Wolf in a speech at the political event Almedalen Week on the island of Gotland on Tuesday.

By doing so, Swedbank aims to contribute to the reconstruction of the Baltic real-estate sector.

All-in-all, the Swedish banks stand strong in the Baltic crisis, he said. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority has during the last few months turned up the worst-case-scenarios and made tough stress test, resulting in the conclusion that the major Swedish banks can withstand credit losses in the Baltics exceeding 150 billion kronor (€14 billion) over a three-year period.

But the Swedish bank was not in need of new capital, despite mounting losses in the Baltic region.

“We are well capitalised”, Michael Wolf said according to Reuters.

He also said that Swedbank isn’t involved in any decisions regarding devaluation of the Latvian currency, something that would be a blow for the Swedish banks that are key players in the market.

“We don’t have that political ambition. This is rather the politician’s duty to determine the way ahead. They have chosen a way and sticks to it very hard”, Michael Wolf said.