Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European
financial
Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...
services group operating in northern
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and based in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
, and
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse, branded domestically as Kreditkassen or K-Bank and internationally as Christiania Bank was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1848 and 2000 when it merged with MeritaNordbanken and became Nordea. The bank had ...
that took place between 1997 and 2001. The
Nordic countries
The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It includes the sovereign states of Denmar ...
are considered Nordea's home market, having finalised the sales of their Baltic operations in 2019. Nordea is listed on
Nasdaq Nordic
Nasdaq Nordic is the common name for the subsidiaries of Nasdaq, Inc. that provide financial services and operate marketplaces for securities in the Nordic and Baltic regions of Europe.
Historically, the operations were known by the company ...
exchanges in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
,
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, and
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
and Nordea ADR is listed in the US.
Nordea serves 9.3 million private and 530,000 active corporate customers, including 2,650 large corporates and institutions. Nordea's credit portfolio is distributed across Finland (21%), Denmark (26%), Norway (21%), and Sweden (30%). There are four Business Areas (BAs) at Nordea, Personal Banking, Business Banking, Large Corporates & Institutions, and Asset & Wealth Management. Assets under Management (AUM) were €411 billion in December 2021.
History
Nordea's roots date to 1820 and
Sparekassen for Kjøbenhavn og Omegn
Sparekassen for Kjøbenhavn og Omegn, literally The Savings Bank for Copenhagen and Its Vicinity, was a local savings bank in Copenhagen, Denmark. Its headquarters was from 1870 located at the corner of Niels Hemmingsens Gade (No. 24) and Løvstr ...
in Denmark, and a complete family tree of around 300 banks including some of the oldest banks in the Nordic region. This includes Wermlandsbanken of Sweden (founded 1832), Christiania Kreditkasse of Norway (founded 1848) and Union Bank of Finland (UBF) of Finland (founded 1862). Between 1997 and 2001, the
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
,
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
,
Danish
Danish may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark
People
* A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark
* Culture of Denmark
* Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...
, and
Norwegian
Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to:
*Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe
* Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway
* Demographics of Norway
*The Norwegian language, including ...
bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
s of Merita Bank, Nordbanken, Unidanmark, and
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse, branded domestically as Kreditkassen or K-Bank and internationally as Christiania Bank was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1848 and 2000 when it merged with MeritaNordbanken and became Nordea. The bank had ...
merged into the present day Nordea.
Merita Group was formed in 1995, when UBF and
Kansallis-Osake-Pankki
Kansallis-Osake-Pankki (KOP) was a Finnish commercial bank operating from 1889 to 1995. It was created by the fennoman movement as a Finnish language alternative to the largely Swedish language bank, Suomen Yhdyspankki (''Swedish: Föreningsbank ...
(KOP) merged. UBF was established, in 1862, at a time when there were no Limited Liability Companies Act or banking laws in Finland. Therefore, it was modelled after banking standards in other countries. UBF eventually merged with rivals Nordiska Aktiebanken in 1919 and Helsingin Osakepankki (HOP) in 1986. KOP was originally founded in 1890 with its first branch at Aleksanterinkatu 17, in Helsinki. By 1913, KOP had become the second largest commercial bank in Finland. The two banks, KOP and UBF, competed for the title of the largest bank in Finland for decades. KOP suffered large credit losses as a result of the Finnish banking crisis in the early 1990s. On 1 April 1995 it became a subsidiary (51%) of Merita Group in a direct share issue.
Nordbanken was formed in 1986 by a merger of two smaller private local banks, Uplandsbanken and Sundsvallsbanken, though it was the product of numerous original institutions. The oldest of the original Nordbanken constituent banks was Wermlandsbanken, which was founded in 1832. Nordbanken came under Swedish government control in 1992, following the Swedish banking crisis in the early 1990s, with the sale of its
non-performing loan A non-performing loan (NPL) is a bank loan that is subject to late repayment or is unlikely to be repaid by the borrower in full. Non-performing loans represent a major challenge for the banking sector, as it reduces the profitability of banks, and ...
s to the Swedish government and significant reduction in personnel. Bad debts were transferred to the asset-management company Securum, which sold off the assets. At the time, the approach of establishing "good" and "bad" banks composed of corresponding assets was a novel resolution approach.
Merita Group merged with Nordbanken in 1997 forming MeritaNordbanken. The Solo internet-based banking operation of MeritaNordbanken was a global pioneer and leader providing mobile and internet banking access in 1999. The bank reached 1 million internet banking customers during 1999 with 3 million log-ins and 3.7 million payments per month. Housing loans via Solo were introduced in 1999. MeritaNordbanken agreed to buy Unidanmark, Denmark's second-largest bank, in early 2000 creating the Nordic region's biggest financial institution with €186 billion in assets. The merged group had a banking market share of 20% in
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...
, 25% in
Denmark
)
, song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast")
, song_type = National and royal anthem
, image_map = EU-Denmark.svg
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark
...
and 40% in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
and a combined workforce of 28,050. By end 2000, MeritaNordbanken had further merged with
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse, branded domestically as Kreditkassen or K-Bank and internationally as Christiania Bank was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1848 and 2000 when it merged with MeritaNordbanken and became Nordea. The bank had ...
of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
, a process started in 1999 and changed its name to Nordea. Christiania Bank had also been impacted severely during the banking crisis in the early 1990s, with Nordea acquiring the bank from the Norwegian Government Bank Investment Fund with a 35% share.
Nordea expanded into Poland, the Baltics and Russia in the early 2000s, with 2% of total revenues from the Poland and Baltics region. Nordea divested of Polish operations in 2013, with the sale to PKO Bank Polski for €694 million. By end 2014, lending in the Baltics was €8.2 billion and in Russia €4.5 billion. During the period 2013-2017 exposure to the Russian market was reduced by 63%. In 2016, Luminor was formed by a merger of Nordea's and DNB's operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania creating the third largest Baltic regional bank with assets of €15 billion and a market share of 16.4%. Luminor was sold to Blackstone, with Nordea and DNB retaining each initially a 20% share. However, the full divestment was completed in 2019. Exit from the Russian, Baltic and Polish markets were part of Nordea's de-risking strategy, which also included reduced exposures to some sectors (e.g. Shipping, Oil & Offshore and Agriculture in Denmark). Nordea was one of the Nordic banks, including Danske Bank, SEB and Swedbank, allegedly involved in the money laundering scandal, involving ex-Soviet states, that emerged in 2017.
Nordea announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland in September 2017. The re-domicilation of Nordea to Finland put it within the supervision of the European Central Bank and within the European Union's banking union. In October 2018, Nordea completed the move of its corporate headquarters to Helsinki, Finland.
Performance and ownership
Market capitalisation of Nordea was €29.3 billion at year end 2019, making it the seventh largest Nordic company and among the 10 largest European financial groups. Since the merger of MeritaNordbanken and Unidanmark in 2000, the share price of Nordea has appreciated 79% with a clear outperformance to the STOXX Europe 600 Banks Index (-57.4%). With approximately 580,000 registered shareholders at the end of 2019, Nordea has one of the largest shareholding bases of any Nordic company. The largest shareholding group is institutions, with approximately 22.2% Non-Nordic shareholders are 31% as of end 2019. Nordea's 10 largest shareholders are:
# Nordea Fonden, 3.9%
#Blackrock, 2.9%
#Alecta, 2.8%
#Vanguard Funds, 2.7%
#Cevian Capital, 2.3%
#Swedbank Robur Funds, 2.0%
#
Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company
Varma Pension Insurance Company (Finnish: ''Keskinäinen työeläkevakuutusyhtiö Varma'') is a pension insurance company in Finland. Varma manages statutory TyEL insurance for employees and YEL insurance for the self-employed and statutory voca ...
There are four Business Areas (BAs) at Nordea, Personal Banking, Business Banking, Large Corporates & Institutions, and Asset & Wealth Management.
Scandals
Nordea was the subject of an online phishing scam in 2007. The company estimated 8 million kr ($1.1 million) was stolen. Customers were targeted over a period of 15 months with
phishing
Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...
emails containing a
trojan horse
The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
. Nordea refunded affected customers.
The largest financial group in the Nordic region, Nordea was, despite warnings from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) active in using offshore companies in tax havens according to the Panama papers. Other Swedish banks were mentioned in the documents, but mention of Nordea occurred 10,902 times and the second-most mentioned bank has 764 matches. In 2012, Nordea asked
Mossack Fonseca
Mossack Fonseca & Co. () was a Panamanian law firm and Corporate services, corporate service provider. Nordea bank loaned billions of euros to shipping companies that own vessels in secrecy jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Cyprus, Panama, BVI, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man. In the
Paradise Papers
The Paradise Papers are a set of over 13.4 million confidential electronic documents relating to offshore investments that were leaked to the German reporters Frederik Obermaier and Bastian Obermayer, from the newspaper'' Süddeutsch ...
, Nordea was shown to have lent a significant amount of money to customers based in tax havens. As a consequence of the leaked documents, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) stated on 4 April 2016 that it had started an investigation into the conduct of Nordea.
The Nordea section in Luxembourg, between the years 2004 and 2014, founded nearly 400
offshore companies
The term "offshore company" or “offshore corporation” is used in at least two distinct and different ways. An offshore company may be a reference to:
* a company, group or sometimes a division thereof, which engages in offshoring business pro ...
in
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...
and the
British Virgin Islands
)
, anthem = "God Save the King"
, song_type = Territorial song
, song = "Oh, Beautiful Virgin Islands"
, image_map = File:British Virgin Islands on the globe (Americas centered).svg
, map_caption =
, mapsize = 290px
, image_map2 = Brit ...
for its customers. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) pointed out that there are "serious deficiencies" in how Nordea monitors
money laundering
Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...
, and gave the bank two warnings. In 2015, Nordea paid the largest possible fine - over 5 million
EUR
The euro (symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . Th ...
.
Stefan Löfven
Kjell Stefan Löfven (; officially ''Löfvén''; born 21 July 1957) is a Swedish politician who serves as the Party of European Socialists, President of European Socialists since October 2022. He previously served as Prime Minister of Sweden fro ...
,
Prime Minister of Sweden
The prime minister ( sv, statsminister ; literally translating to "Minister of State") is the head of government of Sweden. The prime minister and their cabinet (the government) exercise executive authority in the Kingdom of Sweden and are subj ...
, said in 2016 that he was very critical of the conduct of Nordea and its role, and said: "They are on the list of shame too". The Swedish minister of Finance
Magdalena Andersson
Eva Magdalena Andersson (born 23 January 1967) is a Swedish politician and economist who has served as Leader of the Opposition since October 2022 and Leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party since 2021. She has served as a Member of the R ...
characterized the conduct of Nordea as "a crime" and "totally unacceptable". The director for Nordea Private banking Thorben Sanders admits that before 2009 they did not screen for customers that tried to evade tax. "At the end of 2009 we decided that our bank should not be a means of tax evasion" says Thorben Sanders. Nordea CEO
Casper von Koskull
Casper von Koskull (born September 1960) is a Finnish banker, former president and CEO of Nordea, Nordea Bank Abp, the Nordic financial services group operating in Northern Europe, since 1 November 2015, when he succeeded Christian Clausen. He is ...
stated that he was disappointed with the shortcomings within Nordea's operating principles, saying that "this cannot be tolerated".
In March 2019, public service broadcasting company,
Yle
Yleisradio Oy ( Finnish, literally "General Radio Ltd." or "General Broadcast Ltd."; abbr. Yle ; sv, Rundradion Ab, italics=no), translated to English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, found ...
, aired a program that revealed money laundering allegations against Nordea. The company was the biggest Nordic lender allegedly involved in the multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme, according to Bloomberg.
Nordea Bank Finland
Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive m ...
Nordea Bank Norge ASA
Nordea Bank Norge is the Norwegian branch of Nordea Bank Abp, the Norwegian retail part of the Nordea financial group. The Norwegian headquarters is in Essendrops gate 7, Oslo.
History
In 2000 MeritaNordbanken purchased Christiania Bank
C ...
*
Nordea Bank Polska S.A.
Nordea Bank Polska was a name of bank, part of Nordea in Poland - the largest Scandinavian financial group.
Nordea Bank Polska was established first as "Bank Komunalny" in 1992, the Nordea Group became a strategic investor in 1999. By the end of ...
PlusGirot
PlusGirot ''(formerly PostGirot)'' is a Swedish money transaction system, owned by Nordea. ''PlusGirot'' is one of two proprietary clearing systems used for regular transactions such as bill payments in Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdo ...
– open clearing system in Sweden owned by Nordea
*
European Financial Services Roundtable
The European Financial Services Round Table (EFR) brings together chairmen and chief executives of leading European banks and insurance companies. The purpose of the EFR is to contribute to the European public policy debate on issues relating to fi ...
*
Inter-Alpha Group of Banks The Inter-Alpha Group of Banks was created in 1971 by six banks in the European Community to provide a platform for the regular exchange of ideas and to explore areas for cooperation between its member banks. The group is a non-hierarchical associat ...
*
Kansallis-Osake-Pankki
Kansallis-Osake-Pankki (KOP) was a Finnish commercial bank operating from 1889 to 1995. It was created by the fennoman movement as a Finnish language alternative to the largely Swedish language bank, Suomen Yhdyspankki (''Swedish: Föreningsbank ...
*
List of oldest companies
This list of the oldest companies in the world includes brands and companies, excluding associations and educational, government, or religious organizations. To be listed, a brand or company name must remain operating, either in whole or in part, ...
, as Nordea is the oldest bank in Sweden, with roots from 1820.
*
List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities
Investors in Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC lost billions of dollars in the Madoff investment scandal, a Ponzi scheme fraud conducted by Bernard Madoff. The amount missing from client accounts, over two thirds of which were fabricat ...
Nordic headquarters
File:PK-huset 2009b.jpg, Swedish headquarters in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
File:Nordea København.jpg, Danish headquarters in
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
file:Hovedinngang_i_mørke.jpg, Norwegian headquarters in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...
File:Nordea M17 new part 3jun2006.JPG, The former Norwegian headquarters in
Oslo
Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...