July 15 (Reuters) - Nordea, the Nordic region's biggest bank, reported second-quarter operating earnings just below expectations on Monday and said profit was affected by higher expenses and higher net loan losses, partly offset by higher income.

Operating profit at the Finnish lender eased 2% from a year earlier to 1.68 billion euros ($1.83 million), against a mean forecast in an LSEG poll of analysts of 1.71 billion euros.

($1 = 0.9182 euros) (Reporting by Elviira Luoma and Jesus Calero, editing by Anna Ringstrom)