Meet four FFPs, see what they’re up to and what makes it “wonderful to come to the office every day”

Jaakko Kaksonen (Financial Reporting Tools, Assistant Controller)

I am currently pursuing a double Master’s degree in Finance & Industrial Engineering and Management at the University of Oulu.

As FFP trainee, I work as Assistant Controller in Financial Reporting Tools where our goal is to deliver accurate and reliable analysis and reports within the finance domain. This includes daily Profit & Loss explanations as well as monthly and quarterly reports for Markets and Treasury. By delivering valid and reliable information, we empower decision-makers to act in the best interest of stakeholders which enables a continuous growth of our organization.

Efficiency is a core focus within Financial Reporting, and automation plays a crucial role in achieving this goal. My role involves actively contributing to the automation of processes, streamlining workflows, and driving overall efficiency. Our own Python framework serves as a robust foundation for the data analysis and reporting initiatives. Technological advancements ensure that the reporting practices remain up to date and efficient.

Excellent environment to develop skills and excel

I play an integral role in developing new reporting and controlling solutions using a wide range of different technologies and tools. Since the reporting itself is done by persons with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, it’s essential to co-work with the stakeholders and have excellent communication through the whole development process.

I’m trusted with a high level of responsibility, allowing me to take ownership of our tasks and make independent decisions. This makes the environment excellent for professional growth that enables me to develop my skills and thus excel in my role.

Overall, I have felt the positive atmosphere since day one, and the engagement to the team and organization has been amazing. In addition, the daily discussions with other FFPs makes it truly wonderful to come to the office every day , let alone the happenings that we have together almost every week.

Otso Oksanen (Traded Financial Instruments Development)

I’m a masters student at Aalto University, majoring in Information and Service management with a minor in Finance. I will start writing my thesis during the next fall. The past few summers I have worked in various roles with the Finnish Tax Authority and in personal banking.

I am an FFP in the Traded Financial Instruments Development team. In practice this means that I work as a part of the product owner/business side team of Nordea’s Trading Data Warehouse which stores data for nearly all trades made in Nordea. In addition, I do administrative tasks for our Bloomberg and Trading book systems.

In my line of work, there are no daily tasks as such, and every day is different. Be it from working with consultants to source data for new ECB reports, business testing new additions to our data warehouse, building tools to automate tasks, creating trade books, or planning the future additions to the data warehouse three months in advance with my team – there is no lack of variety.

So, in this kind of job you have to be very self-directed and active, and being able to effectively organize my works helps a lot. Basic understanding of SQL is important to begin with, and your skills will develop very, very fast here. Python is also great for automating the few more manual tasks that I still sometimes find. On an overall technical knowledge is an asset.

The amount of things I have learned already stands out

There are many great things I have experienced in the FFP program, so far, and the amount of things I have learned already stands out. Like, when someone at the front office makes a trade, what actually then happens on the IT side of things? I would say, I have gotten an excellent overview of what happens before and after to make the trade possible, and learned many details. In addition, I have learned a lot about how business works, trading and the markets in general. Other highlights are the great colleagues and of course the time spent with other FFPs, especially after work.

Mimmi Kähkönen (Financial & Risk Control, Assistant Controller)

I’m a MSc student from Oulu and I’m starting my 5^th in year in my major, Business Analytics, this upcoming fall. By far, Helsinki has provided a very nice change of environment and much inspiration to my professional career :)

I work as Assistant Controller in Financial & Risk Control, in which we aim to identify, predict and mitigate various risks with a focus on regulatory and compliance risks. Our team executes controls for Large Corporate & Institutions (LC&I), Group Treasury and Wealth Management. 

As an FFP, I have 3-4 daily controls to run and additionally, I participate in handling samples from our monthly controls. I really appreciate how much responsibility I’ve been given and am glad to have been involved in many interesting cases. At the same time, my team is always encouraging discussion and sparring, so I get help whenever I need.

No greater place to work than on the trading floor

There’s no greater place to work than the trading floor. It really makes a difference in my daily work, when I’m surrounded with professionals across fields and market areas. As an FFP, working here also gives perspective on possible future career paths.

Our FFP group has without a doubt been one of the best parts of summer already. Getting to know new people, networking and just having fun together has really enriched my experience here in Helsinki.

Juho Autio (Treasury Models & Analytics, Assistant Analyst)

I’m a master’s student at Turku School of Economics majoring Accounting and Finance. Before joining the FFP programme, I had worked in Nordea for 1.5 years in two different teams; Customer Service and Fund Operations.

As FFP, I am working in Treasury Models & Analytics team as an Assistant Analyst. Our team is responsible for providing value-adding reporting, analysis and insights and developing models for managing funding and liquidity risks as well as non-traded market risks in the banking book.

Fast paced onboarding process – support at hand

My daily tasks include monitoring, analysing and reporting different liquidity metrics at the group level. After the fast paced onboarding process, I am now handling the daily reporting processes independently, but if difficult problems arise, support is always available. Besides the daily reporting tasks, I’ve been involved in developing the reporting processes, tools and instructions.

The best thing about being an FFP here has been the fellow FFP colleagues. Even though I have gained valuable experience in my past roles in Nordea, I’ve learned more in the past two months about the different roles and teams in the organization than before joining the program. For this I can thank my fellow FFP colleagues, who have been, and are, a big part of my summer, both during and outside working hours.