Nordea’s CEO Frank Vang-Jensen participated in a fireside chat with Bank of America analyst Tarik El Mejjad. The conversation was wide-ranging, taking in everything from the prospects for the Nordic economies to Nordea’s growth plans.
“Right now, the activity level is lower compared to what we usually see,” Vang-Jensen said, reflecting on the more muted economic environment the Nordic countries have experienced over the past couple of years. “But looking into next year we will start to see some growth.”
During the discussion, Vang-Jensen reiterated that Nordea’s focus remains firmly on the Nordic countries, which he described as “probably the best part of Europe to run a bank in.”
“Competition is always high in the Nordics, but that’s good for the customer. We are holding up very well.”
On Nordea’s plans in Norway, one of the bank’s four home markets, Vang-Jensen said the upcoming acquisition of Danske Bank’s personal and private banking business in the country would be an important step to strengthen its position.
“What we get is [approximately] 250,000 customers from day one,” he said, noting that Nordea would work to use its size and strengths to offer them a broad range of financial services. The acquired business is expected to become part of Nordea from December 1, 2024.
The next key step for Nordea would be to make the most of its size and scale – what he called the bank’s ‘Nordic scale’. This would involve leveraging Nordea’s strong technology foundation to support more Nordic-level processes and applications, which in turn would help support stronger profitability.
Vang-Jensen said Nordea’s scale benefit is something unique, which peers do not have, and noted that investors could expect it to “start to play a prominent role” for Nordea in the future.
More acquisitions might be possible in the future, too. Vang-Jensen pointed to Nordea’s strategy of making bolt-on acquisitions to support growth, where they make sense. Under his leadership, Nordea has made, more or less, one acquisition every year.
Asked about the secret of Nordea’s success in growing its share of the retail banking markets, Vang-Jensen said there had been no “silver bullet”.
“It’s about consistency. It’s about focus. It’s about getting the entire value chain to understand what it takes to win. That’s what we have done. We started five years ago, and we have kept on winning.”