Banking’s future in focus: Nordea’s Jyrki Katainen sets stage for conversation with Margrethe Vestager

At a time when Europe faces geopolitical challenges and uncertainty, the conversation planned for this year’s AAA Seminar on 23 April 2026 couldn’t be more timely.

Jyrki Katainen, Nordea’s Head of Public and Regulatory Affairs, will sit down with Margrethe Vestager, the former European Commissioner for Competition, to explore what the EU must do to become stronger, more secure and competitive in an increasingly fragmented world.

Boosting European banking competitiveness

The context for their discussion reflects evolving priorities in European policymaking.

“Given the geopolitical challenges EU is facing, the European Commission has started to look at how to make EU banks globally more competitive,” explains Katainen, pointing to a notable shift in EU focus.

After years of emphasising regulation, Brussels is now exploring ways to enhance banking competitiveness, amid increasing competition from American banks. European banks have been losing market share to US competition over the past decade.

“In the US they have a few really big banks, and in Europe we have 2-3 large global banks, but it’s too little,” says Katainen. The path forward involves building greater scale and addressing regulatory barriers, such as the macroprudential framework.

Nordea itself stands as a unique example – one of the only EU banks operating a truly cross-border branch model.

“The Commission points to us, asking why other banks aren’t doing the same as we’ve done. It’s a real issue, and the Commission is interested in our experiences, which may have wider impact for European banking competitiveness,” he says.

This interest was evident at a recent high-level Brussels event organised by Nordea, where policymakers from the Commission, European Parliament and ECB Banking Supervision agreed on the need for macroprudential reform.

A vision for EU reforms

For their AAA Seminar conversation, Katainen plans to leverage Vestager’s experience at the heart of EU policymaking. Having served together as commissioners, the two share both history and aligned thinking on Europe’s challenges.

The conversation will explore the concrete reforms needed for EU self-sufficiency in critical areas: defense, finance and clean energy. The goal is ambitious: to identify a list of measures the EU should implement over the next decade.

Katainen would also like to ask Vestager how she sees Nordic companies’ engagement in the Commission’s work with relevant reforms. He argues that Nordic companies aren’t doing enough to actively contribute to the direction of the EU. For example, Nordea is the only Nordic bank with an office in Brussels.

“If Nordic companies were more proactive and took more ownership of the future of the EU, it would help the EU to reform itself. We have to take responsibility - not outsource the responsibility to politicians,” he says.

The annual AAA Seminar for issuers and investors takes place on 23 April 2026 in Copenhagen.