An interview with CEO Frank Vang-Jensen was published in Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday (for subscribers), which I think is worth reading. Not really any new information about the company, of course. Below are a couple of selected quotes.
Vang-Jensen has promised to share what he thinks about the future of financial services, AI, geopolitics, and Finland and Finns in general.
You have lived in Helsinki for 6.5 years and led Nordea across four Nordic countries. What surprises a Dane about Finnish economic policy decision-making?
”We are a consensus country. There are pros and cons to that. In Denmark and Norway, there is a tough public debate first – and disagreement is perfectly accepted. We don’t have that same culture in Finland, nor in Sweden, in my opinion.”
”In Finland, the economic policy debate is often defensive: how to keep Finland safe, stable, and as it is, so that bad things don’t happen.”
”Growth is talked about too little here. We need more questions like, how do we win, how do we grow, and how do we encourage entrepreneurs to also fail?”
”But when a decision is made, it is implemented efficiently. That is a strength. The flip side is that the public debate remains thin.”
Moving on to geopolitics. Has Donald Trump permanently changed the markets?
”I won’t speculate on what the United States will be like after Trump’s term. But now is Europe’s moment. I have never seen a situation where Europeans are so unanimous that we must act differently and quickly."
”Europe has a great deal of wealth, an educated population, many different skills, and for example, more inhabitants than the United States. We should not accept the idea that Europe has been left behind.”
Will AI take jobs from banks?
”Some tasks will disappear and new ones will emerge. This has happened with every technological disruption: industrialization, the arrival of the internet. Now the pace is faster. Nordea’s headcount has remained practically the same for the last seven years, even though Nordea’s revenue is now nearly 50 percent higher than seven years ago – now roughly around 12 billion euros. It shows that technology makes us more efficient, not that we are driving people away.”
”We have a lot of data that has been kept in storage but not used. Now we are putting that data to use so that it helps customers.”
Nordea’s strategy extends to 2030. What are you aiming for?
”We are building one common digital bank for four countries, in five languages, from a single platform. When it’s finished, we will have efficiency and growth capacity on a Nordic scale that others will not easily be able to replicate.”
Acquisitions – are you being too cautious? Will you buy Aktia and Evli in Finland, or both?
”We aren’t cautious; we are realistic. We cannot build a strategy on acquisitions because we don’t decide what is for sale. If a suitable target comes along, we would be very happy to look at it. The main focus is on organic growth.”
For example, in the United States, banks grow much more briskly through acquisitions. Why are you so wimpy?
”I don’t think we are wimps. We are realists. Our market is in the Nordics. Here we know the risk limits, and here we know how to operate. In five years, it will be time to look at acquisitions more broadly. This is a market of 28 million inhabitants and there are many great companies here, but it takes two to make a deal. We don’t want to waste shareholders’ money.”