Gunn Waersted, Head of Wealth Management at Nordea

- It is encouraging to welcome new Private Banking clients. It serves as motivation to strive for our vision of being the preferred Private Bank across all markets – acknowledged for our people and for creating superior value for our customers, says Gunn Wærsted, Head of Nordea Wealth Management.

The number of Nordea Private Banking clients has doubled over the past ten years.
The growing number of clients has been accompanied by a positive trend in customer satisfaction. In all Nordic markets the Customer Satisfaction Index among Private Banking clients increased in the latest index in 2012.

Read more about Nordea Private Banking in:
Sweden
Denmark
Norway
Finland

Casper von Koskull, head of Wholesale banking at Nordea

On May 23rd Casper von Koskull, Executive Vice President, Head of Wholesale Banking will be speaking at the International Capital Market Association’s (ICMA) Annual General Meeting and Conference.

This year’s event takes place in Copenhagen and Nordea Markets will be participating as a GOLD sponsor and of course be present during the whole AGM.

ICMA is a unique trade association and an influential voice for the global capital markets. It represents a broad range of capital market interests including global investment banks and smaller regional banks, as well as asset managers, exchanges, central banks, law firms and other professional advisers.
 
Over 800 international participants were present at ICMA’s most recent AGM and Conference which took place in Milan, in May 2012. As in previous years the quality of the event and high-calibre speakers attracted representation at a very senior level.

Liisa Jauri, head of CSR at Nordea

Nordea is among the most sustainable banks in the Nordic countries according to surveys conducted by Sustainable Brand Index. In Sweden Nordea shows a clear positive trend. In all Nordic countries we are among the top financial brands and moving up.

“Increasing awareness and our persistent work with systematically improving the responsibility in our core business have led to our position as one of the most responsible banking brands in the Nordics. We are working with our responsible lending, our products and services, our own operations, our supply chain, teaching teenagers responsible finances and not least our responsible investments with positive screening. Overall, we have a long way to go but we are happy to see our strategy is paying off, says Liisa Jauri, Head of CSR at Nordea.”

Awareness of sustainability increasing
The surveys were conducted in all four Nordic countries separately, and consumers were asked their opinion about the environmental and sustainability performance of companies in a variety of sectors.
Interest and awareness of sustainability issues are growing among consumers. Demands are likely to increase.

Nordea’s strategy of systematically integrating sustainability with business takes time but is solid.
This is the first year the survey is conducted in Denmark, Finland and Norway and the third year in Sweden. In each country 1000 consumers were asked about banks. Below you can see the results.

Results for Sweden

Results for Norway

Results for Denmark

Results for Finland

Helge J Pedersen, Global Chief Economist, Nordea

Like Baron Von Münchhausen, Europe will have to pull itself out of the swap by its hair.

That was the opening salvo from Werner Hoyer, the German president of the European Investment Bank, at an international financial conference which I attended last week in Luxembourg.  And even though Von Münchhausen was a fantasist and a liar, Hoyer has a point. Europe cannot rely on external aid, nor can the debt-ridden states assume new burdens. So Europe has to pull itself together and do whatever it takes in terms of structural reforms and economic self-discipline to get the economy back on track.

Read the full report

Please click here to see the interview.

CEO Christian Clausen’s comments on the results:
“Nordea has delivered in line with the financial plan that was presented at the Capital Markets Day on 6 March. I am very pleased that we delivered flat costs for the 10th consecutive quarter. Our focus on capital efficiency led to a further increase in our Core tier 1 ratio to 13.2% despite negative impact from revised IAS 19 rules.

Our income-related initiatives had a positive effect and we managed to mitigate the negative effects of low interest rates and low activity level in the corporate sector. We are convinced that these initiatives will continue to act as drivers for operating income.

Our credit quality continues to be robust. We see confirmation that credit quality has stabilised in Denmark and shipping, and we expect further improvements in 2013 compared to 2012.”

(For further viewpoints, see CEO comments, page 2)

First quarter 2013 vs. First quarter 2012 (First quarter 2013 vs. Fourth quarter 2012):

• Total operating income up 1% (-3%)
• Operating profit up 2% (unchanged)
• Core tier 1 capital ratio up to 13.2% from 11.6% (up from 13.1%)
• Cost/income ratio up to 51% from 50% (up from 50%)
• Loan loss ratio of 23 basis points, down from 26 basis points (down from 29 bps)
• Return on equity 11.3%, down from 11.9% (down from 12.3%)
    

Currency rates used for DKK, NOK and SEK for the first quarter 2013 are for income statement items 7.46, 7.43 and 8.50 respectively.

For further information:
Christian Clausen, President and Group CEO, +46 8 614 7804
Torsten Hagen Jørgensen, Group CFO, +46 8 614 7814
Rodney Alfvén, Head of Investor Relations, +46 8 614 7880 (or +46 72 235 05 15)
Jan Larsson, Head of Group Identity & Communications, +46 8 614 7916 (or +46 70 593 34 12)

Go to IR Report pages

Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, SFSA) has decided to issue a remark and a penalty of SEK 30m (EUR 3.5m) to the Swedish part of Nordea, Nordea Bank AB, for lack of sufficient governance and internal control relating to anti-money laundering regulation.

Nordea shares the view of the SFSA that governance and control of procedures and routines relating to AML legislation are important and should be prioritised.

Nordea has continuously developed routines and tools to efficiently meet the requirements of new regulation introduced. Nordea naturally acknowledges the improvement areas pointed out by the SFSA and will without any undue delay adjust its internal processes to ensure that it meets the requirements and clarifications expressed in the SFSA’s decision.

However, Nordea finds the penalty large since no prohibited transactions whatsoever have been made on the frozen accounts scrutinised by the SFSA.

Regarding the specific themes in the decision, Nordea has taken measures to mitigate the risks that the SFSA bases its decision on. To strengthen the control of beneficial owners following the introduction of new regulation Nordea has implemented new procedures and initiated an analysis of all existing customers to register beneficial owners. In addition, Nordea has implemented daily screening against sanctions lists.

Nordea regrets failing to give the SFSA proper notice of movements on frozen accounts. Most of the incidents concern small amounts related to fees and interest accruals on the accounts. Where required, Nordea obtained formal approval from other relevant authorities to make transactions. Nordea has furthermore taken forceful measures to tighten procedures, instructions and IT support relating to the management of frozen accounts.

Concerning the individual account mentioned, Nordea detected and reported it to the relevant authorities as soon as suspicion was raised against the company. In addition, Nordea has introduced more stringent procedures and controls regarding customer due diligence.

  
For further information:
Helena Östman, Head of External Communications, +46 8 614 84 64

Press conference
Time: 9.30 CET
Place: Regeringsgatan 59, Stockholm

Christian Clausen, President and Group CEO, will present the results and answer questions. The presentation will be conducted in English and can be viewed live on www.nordea.com where you will also be able to find the presentation material.

International telephone conference for analysts
Time: 14.30 CET
To participate: dial +44(0)20 3427 1912, confirmation code 6639674# latest ten minutes prior (14.20 CET).

Christian Clausen, President and Group CEO, Torsten Hagen Jørgensen, Group CFO, Ari Kaperi, Group CRO and Rodney Alfvén, Head of Investor Relations, will participate. After brief management presentations a more detailed Q&A session will follow.

After the telephone conference an indexed on-demand replay will be available on www.nordea.com. A replay will also be available through 1 May by dialing +44 (0)20 3427 0598, access code 6639674#.

Analyst and investor presentation in London on 25 April
Time: 12.30 local time
Place: The Langham Hotel, 1C Portland Place, Regent Street, London W1B 1JA

Christian Clausen, President and Group CEO, Torsten Hagen Jørgensen, Group CFO, Ari Kaperi, Group CRO, Rodney Alfvén, Head of Investor Relations, Andreas Larsson, Senior IR officer and Emma Nilsson, IR officer will be present. The presentation, including Q&A, is expected to last approximately one hour.

To attend: please contact: Alicia von Sobbe-Grimberg at Credit Suisse via e-mail, alicia.vonsobbe-grimberg@credit-suisse.com

For further information:
Rodney Alfvén, Head of Investor Relations, +46 8 614 7880
Jan Larsson, Head of Group Identity & Communications, +46 8 614 7916

According to Global Finance, the winners of this year’s awards are those banks that attended carefully to their customers’ needs in difficult markets and accomplished better results while laying the foundations for future success.

Christian Clausen, CEO at Nordea

- I see this award as yet another confirmation that we are on the right track towards creating the future relationship bank. We have a strong starting point, but we also know that we still have much to do. We will further develop our customer relations, and our efficiency programme will continue to improve cost and capital efficiency in the years to come. Our plan is to improve capital and liquidity buffers and achieve a return on equity well above the cost of capital, creating a sustainable bank that continues to attract competitive funding, promote new technology and drive efficiency. Ultimately it’s a plan to deliver Great customer experiences in the new regulatory and economic environment, which is what it’s all about, says Nordeas CEO, Christian Clausen.

A full report on the regional and country selections will appear in the May issue of Global Finance.

Allan Polack

Nordea is ranked fifth in sales of investment funds in Europe, according to a new international analysis from Lipper/Thomson Reuters.

Cross-border sales of Nordea funds in Europe significantly contributed to the prominent position. In cross-border sales Nordea ranked eighth in Europe according to the new analysis based on net sales in 2012.

-The figures indicate that customers trust that their savings and investments will increase when managed by Nordea – in our domestic markets as well as in the rest of Europe, says Allan Polack, head of Nordea Asset Management.

According to Allan Polack, the fact that Nordea funds are distributed abroad to some of the most demanding international wealth managers is a proof of the funds’ high quality. 14 out of 20 of the largest global wealth managers now offer Nordea funds.

-This also shows that the Nordic countries are not only able to export mobile phones, oil, windmills etc. Exporting Nordea funds is another Nordic success story, yet still an unknown story to many, Allan Polack says.