(The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.) By Breakingviews columnists LONDON/MELBOURNE, Feb 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Corona Capital is a daily column updated throughout the day by Breakingviews columnists around the world with short, sharp pandemic-related insights. LATEST - Swedish loans - Ryanair survives - Aussie fintech BAD DEBT. Sweden’s lax coronavirus policy has taken a toll. As of Jan. 16 Covid-19 had claimed over 1,000 deaths per million people in the Scandinavian country, compared with an average of 170 for Norway, Denmark and Finland, according to Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&country=SWE~NOR~FIN~DNK®ion=World&deathsMetric=true&interval=total&perCapita=true&smoothing=0&pickerMetric=total_cases&pickerSort=desc. The country’s banks, however, benefited from the absence of tight lockdowns. Swedbank SWEDa.ST , worth $21 billion, on Monday said https://internetbank.swedbank.se/ConditionsEarchive/download?bankid=1111&id=WEBDOC-PRODE72364798 just 0.26% of its loans were impaired in 2020 – the same as domestic rival SEB’s SEBa.ST broadly equivalent measure https://sebgroup.com/siteassets/investor_relations1/interim_reports/2020_q4_interim.pdf of bad debt. Danish peer DnB DNB.OL , by contrast, clocked up dud credit equivalent to 0.7% of loans in the first nine months of 2020, while euro zone peers were higher still. The gap helps underline Swedish banks’ premium valuation. Nordea Bank NDAFI.HE , SEB, Handelsbanken SHBa.ST and Swedbank on average trade at 1.1 times their expected 2021 tangible book value, using Refinitiv estimates, compared with 0.6 for euro zone peers.  A morbid victory still counts for investors. (By Liam Proud) SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. Covid-19’s impact on aviation has all the ingredients of a nature documentary. Alongside the weaker specimens that have withered, died, or sought state support, a handful are emerging from the crisis leaner and meaner. Low-cost carrier Ryanair RYA.I falls into the latter camp, despite forecasting a record net loss https://otp.tools.investis.com/clients/uk/ryanair/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=901&newsid=1448682&culture=en-GB of up to 950 million euros for the current financial year. Even though Easter is officially a write-off and Europe’s slow vaccine roll-out may delay the start of the summer boom, Chief Executive Michael O’Leary is baring his fangs. His 16 billion euro company – worth more than Germany’s Deutsche Lufthansa LHAG.DE and British Airways-parent IAG ICAG.L combined – has snapped up seven UK airport slots from competitor easyJet EZJ.L . And as rivals put planes up for sale, O’Leary is taking delivery of two dozen fuel-efficient 737 MAX jets. That will keep his costs low, further squeezing rivals even after demand recovers. Charles Darwin would approve. (By Ed Cropley) FINTECH PHEW. A deal Down Under should relieve anxious financial technology investors. National Australia Bank NAB.AX on Friday agreed to buy https://yourir.info/e4600e4db4d0cc89-nab.asx-3A560216/NAB_Agreement_to_acquire_86_400_to_accelerate_UBank_growth.pdf the 80% of online lender 86 400 it doesn’t already own for A$220 million ($169 million). That’s a good outcome considering local rival Xinja gave depositors back their money at the end of last year. In fact, 86 400 – named for the number of seconds in a day – is being bought for more than double the valuation imputed by its Series A funding in April. Better-established U.S. startups Kabbage and OnDeck Capital sold last year for below their peak prices after the pandemic whacked small-business loans. In Australia, though, both home-loan commitments https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/finance/lending-indicators/latest-release and house prices https://www.corelogic.com.au/news/australian-housing-values-reach-new-record-high-as-values-continue-to-rise-across are hitting record highs, and 86 400 has some A$270 million in mortgages. The only hitch could be the country’s competition authorities. They’re worried about big banks taking over would-be challengers, something new for fintech financiers to fret about. (By Antony Currie) On Twitter http://twitter.com/breakingviews - SIGN UP FOR BREAKINGVIEWS EMAIL ALERTS http://bit.ly/BVsubscribe <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ UPDATE-BREAKINGVIEWS-Corona Capital: Vaccines, Dr. Martens urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2K43IZ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^> (Editing by Peter Thal Larsen and Karen Kwok)