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83-538: Nordea serves 9.3 million private and 530,000 active corporate customers, including 2,650 large corporates and institutions. Nordea's credit portfolio is distributed across Finland (21%), Denmark (26%), Norway (21%), and Sweden (30%). There are four Business Areas (BAs) at Nordea, Personal Banking, Business Banking, Large Corporates & Institutions, and Asset & Wealth Management. Assets under Management (AUM) were €411 billion in December 2021. Nordea has been designated as

166-477: A "prudential backstop," or minimum common loss guarantee for the reserve funds that banks set up to deal with losses from future non-performing loans. If a bank fails to meet this agreed minimum level, deductions are made directly from its capital. In addition to the core SREP process, the ECB is also in charge of assessing banks’ acquisition of qualifying holdings, in accordance with Regulation 1024/2013, Art. 4. Before

249-833: A 20% share. However, the full divestment was completed in 2019. Exit from the Russian, Baltic and Polish markets were part of Nordea's de-risking strategy, which also included reduced exposures to some sectors (e.g. Shipping, Oil & Offshore and Agriculture in Denmark). Nordea was one of the Nordic banks, including Danske Bank, SEB and Swedbank, allegedly involved in the money laundering scandal, involving ex-Soviet states, that emerged in 2017. Nordea announced plans to move its corporate headquarters from Stockholm, Sweden to Helsinki, Finland in September 2017. The re-domiciliation of Nordea to Finland put it within

332-582: A Significant Institution since the entry into force of European Banking Supervision in late 2014, first as the Finnish arm of the Stockholm-based group and since 2017 as a financial holding company. As a consequence, it is directly supervised by the European Central Bank . The company has been embroiled in numerous scandals involving moneylaundering and tax evasion. In 2024, Danish authorities indicted

415-423: A bank is recognized as significant or when deemed necessary (i.e., in case of exceptional circumstances or when a non-Eurozone country joins the mechanism). Comprehensive assessments require too much resources for them to be conducted annually. Other supervision tools are therefore used on a more regular basis in order to assess how banks would cope with potential economic shocks. As required by EU law and as part of

498-552: A banking market share of 20% in Sweden , 25% in Denmark and 40% in Finland and a combined workforce of 28,050. By end 2000, MeritaNordbanken had further merged with Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse of Norway , a process started in 1999 and changed its name to Nordea. Christiania Bank had also been impacted severely during the banking crisis in the early 1990s, with Nordea acquiring the bank from

581-512: A close advisor of BNP Paribas . This group led by de Larosière delivered a report highlighting the major failure of European banking supervision pre-2008. Based on this report, the European institutions have set up in 2011 “The European System of Financial Supervision” (ESFS). Its primary objective was: " to ensure that the rules applicable to the financial sector are adequately implemented, to preserve financial stability and ensure confidence in

664-451: A direct share issue. Nordbanken was formed in 1986 by a merger of two smaller private local banks, Uplandsbanken and Sundsvallsbanken, though it was the product of numerous original institutions. The oldest of the original Nordbanken constituent banks was Wermlandsbanken, which was founded in 1832. Nordbanken came under Swedish government control in 1992, following the Swedish banking crisis in

747-608: A money-laundering investigation by the New York State Department of Financial Services , linked to the Panama Papers scandal . The probe revealed the bank's failure to prevent illegal activities, including inadequate screening of clients from 2008 to 2019. European Banking Supervision European Banking Supervision , also known as the Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM), is the policy framework for

830-433: A recapitalization plan for 2015. 0 0 0 0 0 ¹ These banks have a shortfall on a static balance sheet projection, but will have dynamic balance sheet projections taken into account in determining their final capital requirements. 0 0 0 0 0 0 Under the dynamic balance sheet assumption, these banks have no or practically no shortfall taking into account net capital already raised. 0 0 0 0 0 ² Taking into account

913-712: A trillion Polish zloty level for the first time in its history. PKO Bank Polski is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange . As of 3Q 2020, the state directly and indirectly holds 31.39% of shares (29.43% belong to the State Treasury of Poland and 1.96% to state-owned Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego ). PKO Bank Polski is the leader of the Capital Group. In addition to the parent, the group structure includes wholly owned and majority-owned subsidiaries and associates. These pursue their own business objectives whilst supporting

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996-692: Is a multinational banking and financial services company headquartered in Warsaw , Poland . It is one of the largest financial institutions in Poland and in Central and Eastern Europe . PKO BP provides services to both individual and business clients, with a core business in Polish retail banking . As of 2018, it had 1,145 branches located in Poland and abroad and a market capitalization of 52 billion Polish złoty , equivalent to 13.8 billion US dollar . On 7 February 1919, by

1079-531: Is divided in two: Finally, Basel III provides additional capital buffers covering more specific risks. European Banking Supervision has been actively involved in the making of Non-Performing Loans action plans. In the ECB guidance recommendations, the SSM, along with the European Banking Authority (EBA), have introduced a new definition of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) that relates to the optimisation of

1162-497: Is organised by article 26 of the SSM regulation (Council regulation (EU) No 1024/2013). It is composed of all national participating supervisors, a chair, vice-chair and four ECB representatives. These members meet every three weeks in order to draft supervisory decisions then submitted to the Governing Council . The Supervisory Board is assisted in the preparation of its meetings by a Steering Committee. This committee gathers

1245-672: Is proportional to the risks they take. This is closely monitored by the supervisory authorities. Since 2016, if the results of the SREP for a bank do not reflect a proper coverage of the risks, the ECB may impose additional capital requirements to those required by the Basel agreement. This agreement provides a minimum capital requirement (called Pillar 1 requirement) of 8% of banks’ risk-weighted assets .  Since Basel II , extra requirements (called Pillar 2 requirements) can be set in order to cover additional risks. This second category of requirements

1328-507: The British Virgin Islands for its customers. The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) pointed out that there are "serious deficiencies" in how Nordea monitors money laundering , and gave the bank two warnings. In 2015, Nordea paid the largest possible fine - over 5 million EUR . Stefan Löfven , Prime Minister of Sweden , said in 2016 that he was very critical of the conduct of Nordea and its role, and said: "They are on

1411-461: The European Commission is in charge of checking the impacts such transactions will have on competition and, therefore, on consumers, the ECB is tasked to monitor the risks entailed by the suggested consolidations. If a transaction includes the acquisition of more than 10% of a bank’s shares or voting rights (i.e., a qualifying holding – Regulation 575/2013, Art. 4(1)36), it must be reported to

1494-468: The European Treaties , non-Eurozone countries do not have the right to vote in the ECB's Governing Council and, in return, are not bound by its decisions. As a result, non-Eurozone countries cannot become full members of the banking union (i.e., they cannot have the same rights and obligations as Eurozone members). However, non-Eurozone EU member states can enter into a "close cooperation agreement" with

1577-711: The Finnish , Swedish , Danish , and Norwegian banks of Merita Bank, Nordbanken, Unidanmark, and Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse merged into the present day Nordea. Merita Group was formed in 1995, when UBF and Kansallis-Osake-Pankki (KOP) merged. UBF was established, in 1862, at a time when there were no Limited Liability Companies Act or banking laws in Finland. Therefore, it was modelled after banking standards in other countries. UBF eventually merged with rivals Nordiska Aktiebanken in 1919 and Helsingin Osakepankki (HOP) in 1986. KOP

1660-548: The SSM Regulation , which also created its central (albeit not ultimate) decision-making body, the ECB Supervisory Board . Under European Banking Supervision, the ECB directly supervises the larger banks that are designated as Significant Institutions. The other banks, known as Less Significant Institutions, are supervised by national banking supervisors ("national competent authorities") under supervisory oversight by

1743-457: The acquisition of KredoBank (Кредобанк). The company is headquartered in central Warsaw . Because of its size and position as one of the first banks, PKO Bank Polski is still one of the best recognized and most valuable brands in Poland. Specialists from The Banker magazine estimated the value of Bank's brand at US$ 1 billion and in Rzeczpospolita "Polish Brands 2010" ranking its value

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1826-473: The financial crisis of 2008 , an increasing number of banks were merging across Europe. This trend stopped as a result of the crisis: between 2008 and 2017, while we saw a decline in the number of cross-border M&As , domestic consolidations (i.e., between two national institutions) rose. In 2016, there were about 6 000 banks in the Eurozone , most of which with a clear focus on their domestic market. Today,

1909-460: The prudential supervision of banks in the euro area . It is centered on the European Central Bank (ECB), whose supervisory arm is referred to as ECB Banking Supervision . EU member states outside of the euro area can also participate on a voluntary basis, as was the case of Bulgaria as of late 2023. European Banking Supervision was established by Regulation 1024/2013 of the Council, also known as

1992-500: The risks taken by European banks . This process, undertaken annually by supervisors from the ECB and Joint Supervisory Teams, is an essential element of the implementation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism . The aim of the SREP is to make sure that banks remain safe and reliable; that any factors that could affect their capital and liquidity are under control. Today, the capital and liquidity levels of banks are then directly subject to an ECB monitoring system while beforehand it

2075-583: The 130 most significant credit institutions in the 19 Eurozone states representing assets worth €22 trillion (equal to 82% of total banking assets of the eurozone). The supervision report included: Based on these three criteria, the review found that a total of 105 out of the 130 assessed banks met all minimum capital requirements on 31 December 2013. A total of 25 banks were found to suffer from capital shortfalls on 31 December 2013, of which 12 managed to cover these capital shortfalls through raising extra capital in 2014. The remaining 13 banks were asked to submit

2158-571: The Baltics was €8.2 billion and in Russia €4.5 billion. During the period 2013-2017 exposure to the Russian market was reduced by 63%. In 2016, Luminor was formed by a merger of Nordea's and DNB's operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania creating the third largest Baltic regional bank with assets of €15 billion and a market share of 16.4%. Luminor was sold to Blackstone, with Nordea and DNB retaining each initially

2241-807: The Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man. In the Paradise Papers , Nordea was shown to have lent a significant amount of money to customers based in tax havens. As a consequence of the leaked documents, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) stated on 4 April 2016 that it had started an investigation into the conduct of Nordea. The Nordea section in Luxembourg, between the years 2004 and 2014, founded nearly 400 offshore companies in Panama and

2324-711: The Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Supervisory Board, an ECB representative (Edouard Fernandez-Bollo since 2019) as well as five deputies of national supervisors. A division of labour has been established between the ECB and national supervisors. Banks deemed significant will be supervised directly by the ECB. Even though the ECB has the authority to take over the direct supervision of any bank, smaller banks will usually continue to be monitored directly by their national authorities. A total of 115 banks are currently being supervised by

2407-399: The ECB is not new. In November 2016, the ECB wrote in its Financial Stability Review the following sentence with regards to the banking sector: “ Consolidation could bring some profitability benefits at the sector level by increasing cost and revenue synergies without worsening the so-called “too-big-to-fail” problem ” (ECB Financial Stability Review, Nov. 2016, p. 75) This positioning of

2490-422: The ECB's staff, national competent supervisors and experts in the banking field, make the link between the national and supranational levels. There is a JST for each significant banking institution. They act as supporting bodies, responsible mainly for the coordination, control and evaluation of supervisory missions. The Supervisory Review and Evaluation Process, also known as ‘SREP’, is a periodic assessment of

2573-473: The ECB, in favor of bigger and more competitive banks in Europe, translates a certain bias of this institution towards the financial industry. This bias can be explained by different power mechanisms at stake: PKO Bank Polski Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności Bank Polski Spółka Akcyjna or PKO Bank Polski S.A. ( lit.   ' General Savings Bank – Bank of Poland ' ), in short PKO BP or simply PKO ,

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2656-586: The ECB. As of late 2022, the ECB directly supervised 113 Significant Institutions in the 21 countries within its geographical scope of authority, representing around 85% of the banking system's total assets (excluding financial infrastructures that are designated as LSIs such as Euroclear in Belgium, Banque Centrale de Compensation in France, or Clearstream in Germany and Luxembourg). European Banking Supervision represents

2739-405: The ECB. This procedure is organised by article 7 of the SSM regulation (Council regulation (EU) No 1024/2013) and the ECB decision 2014/510. In effect, these agreements imply the supervision of banks in these signatory countries by the ECB. A close cooperation agreement can be ended either by the ECB or by the participating non-Eurozone member state. Bulgaria , which is in the process of adopting

2822-565: The ECB; all other banks are supervised by their national supervisor. A bank is considered significant when it meets any of the following criteria: This significance status is subject to change due to, for example, mergers and acquisitions. In 2020, two additional banks (LP Group B.V. in the Netherlands and Agri Europe Cyprus in Slovenia ) have joined the list of banks supervised by the ECB. Joint Supervisory Teams (JST), composed of members of

2905-606: The EU level was the creation of the Lamfalussy Process in March 2001. It involved the creation of a number of committees in charge of overseeing regulations in the financial sector. The primary goal of these committees was to accelerate the integration of the EU securities market. This approach was not binding for the European banking sector and had therefore little influence on the supervision of European banks. This can be explained by

2988-501: The European banking landscape is composed of banks with a smaller market share at the EU level than what can be observed in the United States. As a result, the European market is said to be more fragmented and therefore less competitive than in the US or Asia. Cross-border mergers in banking would help banks to diversify their portfolio and, therefore, better recover from localized shocks in

3071-504: The Norwegian Government Bank Investment Fund with a 35% share. Nordea expanded into Poland, the Baltics and Russia in the early 2000s, with 2% of total revenues from the Poland and Baltics region. Nordea divested its Polish banking operations in 2013, with the sale to PKO Bank Polski for €694 million but retains a presence in Poland via operations and IT units supporting the Nordic banks. By end 2014, lending in

3154-518: The Panama papers. Other Swedish banks were mentioned in the documents, but mention of Nordea occurred 10,902 times and the second-most mentioned bank has 764 matches. In 2012, Nordea asked Mossack Fonseca to change documents retroactively so that three Danish customers power of attorney documents had been in force since 2010. Nordea bank loaned billions of euros to shipping companies that own vessels in secrecy jurisdictions such as Bermuda, Cyprus, Panama, BVI,

3237-500: The Russian clients. According to the Danish authorities, it was most extensive moneylaundering ever committed by a financial company in the country. In March 2019, public service broadcasting company, Yle , aired a program that revealed money laundering allegations against Nordea. The company was the biggest Nordic lender allegedly involved in the multi-million-dollar money laundering scheme, according to Bloomberg. In July 2024, Nordea Bank

3320-404: The SREP, the ECB carries out annual stress tests on supervised banks. In 2016, a stress test was performed on 51 banks, covering 70% of EU banking assets. These banks entered the process with an average Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1, i.e., percentage of Tier 1 capital held by banks) ratio of 13%, higher than the 11.2% of 2014. The test showed that, with one exception, all the assessed banks exceeded

3403-541: The bank for the most extensive violation by a bank of Denmark’s anti-money laundering act in the country's history. Nordea's roots date to 1820 and Sparekassen for Kjøbenhavn og Omegn in Denmark, and a complete family tree of around 300 banks including some of the oldest banks in the Nordic region. This includes Wermlandsbanken of Sweden (founded 1832), Christiania Kreditkasse of Norway (founded 1848) and Union Bank of Finland (UBF) of Finland (founded 1862). Between 1997 and 2001,

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3486-420: The bank must further protect itself by increasing its equity reserve in the event the loan is not paid. The purpose of this procedure is to increase the bank's resilience to shocks by sharing the risk with the private sector. In other words, addressing the problems associated with PNPs in the future is paramount to consolidating the banking union, while developing lending activity. The new provisions put in place

3569-529: The benchmark used in 2014 in terms of CET1 capital level (5.5%). The results of this stress test show that, in 2016, EU banks had a better potential of resilience and shock absorption than in 2014. In 2018, two types of stress tests were performed: an EBA stress test for 33 banks and a SSM SREP stress test for 54 banks. The aggregate results of those tests show that, in 2018, both sets of banks had again strengthened their capital base compared to 2016, increasing their potential of resistance to financial shocks. Due to

3652-480: The capacity of the ECB to monitor 6,000 banks ". The Vice-President of the European Commission at the time, Olli Rehn , responded to that concern that the majority of European banks would still be monitored by national supervisory bodies, while the ECB " would assume ultimate responsibility for the supervision, in order to prevent banking crises from escalating ". The European Parliament voted in favour of

3735-760: The cash register activity was resumed. On 1 January 1950, the Postal Savings Fund was liquidated, and its agencies were taken over by the General Savings Bank ( Polish : Powszechna Kasa Oszczędności ). In 1974, the PKO offer was enriched with a savings and settlement account for natural persons (commonly known as ROR). From 1975 to 1987, the PKO branches operated within the structures of the National Bank of Poland , retaining their identity. On 1 November 1987, PKO Bank Polski became an independent bank again, as part of

3818-532: The commission, the president of the Central Bank and of the Eurogroup on a preliminary report used as a basis for discussions at the summit. In compliance with the decisions made then, the European Commission published a proposal for a council regulation establishing European banking supervision in September 2012. The European Central Bank welcomed the proposal. Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel questioned "

3901-566: The completion of the banking union, stalled since June 2022, also includes options for the regulatory treatment of sovereign exposures. The question of supervising the European banking system arose long before the financial crisis of 2007-2008 . Shortly after the creation of the monetary union in 1999, a number of observers and policy-makers warned that the new monetary architecture would be incomplete, and therefore fragile, without at least some coordination of supervisory policies among euro members. The first supervisory measure put in place at

3984-528: The coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 stress test has been postponed to 2021. The results of this test should be published by the end of June 2021. All 20 eurozone member states automatically participate in European Banking Supervision. Croatia , being the latest country to join the Eurozone on 1 January 2023, was accordingly added to the scope of application of European Banking Supervision. Under

4067-538: The disposal of the NPLs by the banks. The main purpose is to integrate the multidimensional framework that the banks use in their evaluation process in the comprehensive assessment by the Supervisory Authority. A bank loan is non-performing when the 90-day period is exceeded without the borrower paying the due amount or the agreed interest. If customers do not follow the agreed upon repayment terms for 90 days or more,

4150-487: The early 1990s , with the sale of its non-performing loans to the Swedish government and significant reduction in personnel. Bad debts were transferred to the asset-management company Securum, which sold off the assets. At the time, the approach of establishing "good" and "bad" banks composed of corresponding assets was a novel resolution approach. Merita Group merged with Nordbanken in 1997 forming MeritaNordbanken. The Solo internet-based banking operation of MeritaNordbanken

4233-515: The economic reforms implemented by the communist government of Poland in its last years. In 2019, they were announced the title sponsor for the Polish Ekstraklasa . On 2 February 2024 the bank dismissed eight out of eleven members of the supervisory board. 5 days later, on 7 February 2024, the CEO of the bank Darius Szwed resigned, leaving the bank the following week. On 15 February Szymon Midera

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4316-415: The economy. On the other hand, spreading risks across different geographies could also be a threat to the stability of financial markets: one might, indeed, worry of a potential effect of contagion between regions. Such transactions could also lead to the creation of groups regarded as “ Too big to fail ”, which, in case of systemic crises, would require significant support from the public purse. Following

4399-421: The euro currency, signed a close cooperation agreement with the ECB in 2020. Croatia likewise had a close cooperation agreement with the ECB prior to joining the eurozone. The European Central Bank (ECB) has the leadership in European banking supervision. A strict administrative separation is foreseen between the ECB's monetary and supervisory tasks. However, final decision-making on both matters takes place in

4482-729: The fact that the European treaties did not allow the EU, at the time, to have real decision-making power on these matters. The idea of having to modify the treaties and of engaging in a vast debate on the Member States’ loss of sovereignty cooled down the ambitions of the Lamfalussy process. The financial and economic crisis of 2008 and its consequences in the European Union  incentivized European leaders to adopt a supranational mechanism of banking supervision. The main objective of

4565-454: The financial system as a whole ”. The ESFS brought together, in an unconventional manner, the European and the national supervisory authorities. Despite the creation of this new mechanism, the European Commission considered that, having a single currency, the EU needed to go further in the integration of its banking supervision practices. The idea was that the mere collaboration of national and European supervisory authorities

4648-699: The first local branches: in Kraków , Lwów , Łódź , Poznań , and Katowice . From 1920, the bank had a legal personality as a state institution. The employees of the funds were associated in the Association of Postal Savers Workers, which had their own wheels at larger branches, e.g. in Warsaw, in Łódź. During the German occupation of Poland , in the Second World War , Bank Polski operated under German management. In 1945,

4731-465: The governance mechanism at stake (e.g. what the skills and experiences of the leadership are). With this communication, the ECB also took the initiative to clarify how it was computing the capital requirements of the new entity and how it would assess the quality of this new body's assets . According to two PwC analysts, the publication of this document by the ECB seems to indicate that it wishes to encourage banking consolidation. This position from

4814-445: The initial and so far most complete component of the broader banking union , a project initiated in 2012 to integrate banking sector policy in the euro area. The unfinished piece of the banking union agenda is about crisis management and resolution, for which the so-called Single Resolution Mechanism coexists with national arrangements for deposit insurance and other aspects of the bank crisis management framework. The policy agenda on

4897-641: The legislative proposal on the 12th of September 2013. The Council of the European Union gave its own approval on the 15th of October 2013. The SSM Regulation entered into force on the 4th of November 2014. The fact that European Banking Supervision is formulated as a regulation and not a directive is important. Indeed, a regulation is legally binding and Member States do not have the choice, unlike for directives, of how to transpose it under national law. The ECB published its first comprehensive assessment on 26 October 2014. This financial health check covered

4980-445: The list of shame too". The Swedish minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson characterized the conduct of Nordea as "a crime" and "totally unacceptable". The director for Nordea Private banking Thorben Sanders admits that before 2009 they did not screen for customers that tried to evade tax. "At the end of 2009 we decided that our bank should not be a means of tax evasion" says Thorben Sanders. Nordea CEO Casper von Koskull stated that he

5063-505: The management structure or the need of holding more capital especially in times of financial crisis ). These actions shall normally be fulfilled by the following year. In case of non-compliance with these requirements, the ECB can charge a fine up to the double of the profits (or losses) which have been generated (or caused) by the breach and that can amount up to 10% of these banks’ annual turnover . The ECB can also request national authorities to open proceedings against these banks.  In

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5146-456: The national competent authority of the Member State in which the bank is established. This national authority must then conduct an assessment of the deal and forward its conclusions to the ECB, which is the final decision-maker, validating (with or without conditions) or refusing the transaction (Council Regulation No 1024/2013, Art. 15). In 2020, the ECB published a document aiming to clarify

5229-480: The new supervisory mechanism was to restore confidence in financial markets. The idea was also to avoid having to bail out banks with public money in case of future economic crises. To implement this new system of supervision, the President of the European Commission in 2008, José Manuel Barroso , asked a group of experts to look at how the EU could best regulate the European banking market. This group

5312-579: The order of the Head of State Józef Piłsudski , the Postal Savings Bank was created. Its first director was appointed on 28 December 1919, Hubert Linde  [ pl ] . For many years during the Second Polish Republic , Henryk Gruber  [ pl ] was the president of the PKO. With time, a bank's head office was established in Warsaw with headquarters at ul. Świętokrzyska 31/33 and

5395-491: The orderly resolution plan of this institution, which benefits from a State guarantee, there is no need to proceed with additional capital raising. This is the only time where a comprehensive assessment has been done for the 130 banks supervised by the ECB. Since 2014, only a few numbers of banks have been comprehensively assessed by the ECB: 13 in 2015, 4 in 2016 and 7 in 2019. These comprehensive assessments are conducted either when

5478-526: The potential of reducing the exposure of individual firms to localized shocks, studies show that they also increase systemic risks on financial markets. In the attempt to mitigate those risks, the ECB is, since 2013, responsible (as part of the Single Monitoring Mechanism), with the European Commission , for assessing the soundness of banking mergers (Council Regulation No 1024/2013, Art. 4). While

5561-409: The previous year and  after each cycle, there is an individual evaluation. Based on these assessments and simulations, supervisors write a report on the vulnerability of European banks, with a score ranging from 1 (low risk) to 4 (high risks), and list concrete measures for these banks to take. These measures can be quantitative - related to capital or liquidity, or qualitative (e.g., a change in

5644-636: The same body: the Governing Council. The Governing Council is the main decision-making entity of the ECB. It comprises the members of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and the governors of all national central banks of the Eurozone 's member states. The Governing council is in charge, based on the opinion drafted by the Supervisory Board, of taking formal decisions with regards to its supervisory mandate. The Supervisory board

5727-404: The supervision of the European Central Bank and within the European Union's banking union. In October 2018, Nordea completed the move of its corporate headquarters to Helsinki, Finland. Nordea’s market capitalisation was €39.6 billion at the end of 2023, making it the fifth largest company in the Nordic region and among the ten largest European financial services groups. Between 2000 – when Nordea

5810-411: The terrible consequences of the Lehman Brothers ’ fall in 2008, public authorities seem committed to avoid the collapse of other systemic banks. One of the side effects of these public guarantees is to encourage moral hazard : protected by a public net, these financial institutions are incentivized to adopt riskier behaviors. As this opposition of opinions illustrates, if cross-border mergers might have

5893-461: The way they were assessing such transactions, with the objective of being more transparent and predictable. Even though transactions are assessed on a case-to-case basis, the supervision process of these deals follow the same three stages: In phase two, the ECB pays particular attention to the sustainability of the suggested business model (e.g., under which assumptions it has been built, what has been planned in terms of IT integration, etc.) and to

5976-658: The worst case scenario, when a bank is likely to fail, the second pillar of the European Banking Union , the Single Resolution Mechanism , enters into play. Eventually, even though the methodology and the timeframe are identical for banks, the actions to take can significantly differ among them as well as the sanctions. As banks can take considerable risks , holding capital is essential to absorb potential losses, avoid bankruptcies and secure people’s deposits . The amount of capital banks should hold

6059-455: Was a global pioneer and leader providing mobile and internet banking access in 1999. The bank reached 1 million internet banking customers during 1999 with 3 million log-ins and 3.7 million payments per month. Housing loans via Solo were introduced in 1999. MeritaNordbanken agreed to buy Unidanmark, Denmark's second-largest bank, in early 2000 creating the Nordic region's biggest financial institution with €186 billion in assets. The merged group had

6142-517: Was appointed as acting CEO. Today (as at the end of 2015) PKO Bank Polski employs around 29,000 people and has a full-year net profit of over 7 billion PLN (more than 2 billion US dollars ). Its assets are worth more than 285 billion PLN (around 80 billion US dollars ). Bank was ranked 510 in the Forbes Global 2000 for year 2010. The bank is also present outside Poland, notably in Ukraine after

6225-543: Was disappointed with the shortcomings within Nordea's operating principles, saying that "this cannot be tolerated". In 2013, Politiken , a Danish newspaper, revealed that Nordea's Copenhagen branch was instrumental in establishing approximately 100 offshore companies for Russian and other nationals, despite warnings about suspicious activities. In 2024, the Danish authorities indicted Nordea for violating anti-money laundering laws by allowing $ 3.7 billion of suspicious transactions by

6308-498: Was formed by the merger of MeritaNordbanken and Unidanmark – and 2023, the share price of Nordea appreciated by 177%, outperforming the STOXX Europe 600 Banks Index (-50%). At the end of 2023, Nordea had more than 590,000 shareholders. Nordea’s 10 largest shareholders were: There are four Business Areas (BAs) at Nordea, Personal Banking, Business Banking, Large Corporates & Institutions, and Asset & Wealth Management. Nordea

6391-509: Was heterogeneously done at a national level. This evaluation is based on the monitoring of four different areas: In addition, each year, the European Central Bank is, under European Union law , obliged to perform at least one stress test on all supervised banks. This test will be part of the annual SREP cycle. Stress tests are computer-simulated techniques which evaluate the capacity of banks to cope with potential financial and economic shocks . Annual SREP cycles are based on data from

6474-612: Was led by Jacques de Larosière , a French senior officer who held, until 1978, the position of Director General of the Treasury ;in France. He was also President of the International Monetary Fund from 1978 to 1987, President of the “ Banque de France ” from 1987 to 1993 and President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1993. On a more controversial stance, Jacques de Larosière has also been

6557-529: Was not enough and that the EU needed a single supervisory authority. The European Commission therefore suggested the creation of the Single Supervisory Mechanism. This proposal was debated at the Eurozone summit that took place in  Brussels on 28 and 29 June 2012. Herman Van Rompuy , who was president of the European Council at the time, had worked upstream with the president of

6640-467: Was originally founded in 1890 with its first branch at Aleksanterinkatu 17, in Helsinki. By 1913, KOP had become the second largest commercial bank in Finland. The two banks, KOP and UBF, competed for the title of the largest bank in Finland for decades. KOP suffered large credit losses as a result of the Finnish banking crisis in the early 1990s . On 1 April 1995 it became a subsidiary (51%) of Merita Group in

6723-459: Was set at PLN 3.6 billion. In the 2011 edition of ranking "The BrandFinance® Banking 500" prepared by the British firm Brand Finance, which includes the most valuable bank brands in the world, PKO Bank Polski brand was valued at US$ 1.480 billion. It gives PKO Bank Polski the 1st place in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe and 114th place in the world. In 2023, the bank's total assets surpassed half

6806-450: Was taken to court in Denmark over allegations of failing to prevent money laundering linked to Russian clients. The charges stem from transactions worth €3.8 billion, where Nordea is accused of neglecting proper oversight and ignoring red flags. Despite setting aside €95 million for potential fines, the actual penalty could be significantly higher, possibly approaching $ 1 billion. In August 2024, Nordea agreed to pay $ 35 million to settle

6889-536: Was the subject of an online phishing scam in 2007. The company estimated 8 million kr ($ 1.1 million) was stolen. Customers were targeted over a period of 15 months with phishing emails containing a trojan horse . Nordea refunded affected customers. The largest financial group in the Nordic region, Nordea was, despite warnings from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (FI) active in using offshore companies in tax havens according to

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