Nordea Bank Abp, commonly referred to as Nordea, is a Nordic financial services group operating in northern Europe with headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian banks of Merita Bank, Nordbanken, Unidanmark, and Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse that took place between 1997 and 2001. The Nordic countries are considered Nordea's home market, having finalised the sales of their Polish bank in 2014, Baltic operations in 2019 and completed the exit from Russia in early 2022 following a 2019 decision to close the business there. Nordea is listed on Nasdaq Nordic exchanges in Helsinki, Copenhagen, and Stockholm and Nordea ADR is listed in the US.
Financial regulation is a broad set of policies that apply to the financial sector in most jurisdictions, justified by two main features of finance: systemic risk, which implies that the failure of financial firms involves public interest considerations; and information asymmetry, which justifies curbs on freedom of contract in selected areas of financial services, particularly those that involve retail clients and/or Principal–agent problems. An integral part of financial regulation is the supervision of designated financial firms and markets by specialized authorities such as securities commissions and bank supervisors.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was a quasi-judicial body accountable for the regulation of the financial services industry in the United Kingdom between 2001 and 2013. It was founded as the Securities and Investments Board (SIB) in 1985. Its board was appointed by the Treasury, although it operated independently of government. It was structured as a company limited by guarantee and was funded entirely by fees charged to the financial services industry.
Kaupthing Bank was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic-based operations were spun into a new bank New Kaupthing, which was subsequently renamed Arion Banki. All the non-Icelandic assets and debts remained with the now defunct Kaupthing Bank. Prior to its collapse, it also allegedly loaned money to various parties with the purpose of buying Kaupthing shares.
Danske Bank A/S is a Danish multinational banking and financial services corporation. Headquartered in Copenhagen, it is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over 5 million retail customers. Danske Bank was number 454 on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2011. The largest shareholder with 21% of the share capital is A.P. Moller Holding, the investment holding company of the Maersk family.
The Financial Services Agency is a Japanese government agency and an integrated financial regulator responsible for overseeing banking, securities and exchange, and insurance sectors in order to ensure the stability of the financial system of Japan. The agency operates with a Commissioner and reports to the Minister of State for Financial Services. It oversees the Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission and the Certified Public Accountants and Auditing Oversight Board. Its main office is located in Tokyo.
Financial Supervisory Authority is the Swedish government agency responsible for financial regulation in Sweden. It is responsible for the oversight, regulation and authorisation of financial markets and their participants. The agency falls under the Swedish Ministry of Finance and regulates all organisations that provide financial services in Sweden.
The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, better known by its abbreviation BaFin, is Germany's integrated financial regulatory authority. Since 2014, it has been Germany's national competent authority within European Banking Supervision. It is an independent federal institution with headquarters in Bonn and Frankfurt and falls under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Finance. BaFin supervises about 2,700 banks, 800 financial services institutions, and over 700 insurance undertakings.
The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) is a European Union financial regulatory agency. It was established in 2011 under Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010.
The Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR) was an independent committee of European Securities regulators, in place from 2001 to 2010. On 1 January 2011, it was replaced by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
The Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS) was an independent advisory group on banking supervision in the European Union (EU), active from its establishment in 2004 to its replacement on 1 January 2011 by the European Banking Authority (EBA) which took over all its tasks and responsibilities following Regulation (EC) No. 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 November 2010.
Stefan Nils Magnus Ingves is a Finnish-born Swedish banker, economist and civil servant who served as the Governor of Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden, from 2006 to 2022. He serves as the Vice-Chairman of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) since November 2021. In June 2022, Ingves announced that he will resign as Governor of Sveriges Riksbank on 31 December 2022. He was succeeded in the role by the former director of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, Erik Thedéen.
The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority is the Swiss government body responsible for financial regulation. This includes the supervision of banks, insurance companies, stock exchanges and securities dealers, as well as other financial intermediaries in Switzerland. FINMA's name and acronym are usually expressed in English so as to avoid the semblance of favouring any one of Switzerland's linguistic regions.
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA) is the financial regulatory authority for Poland. Its responsibilities include oversight of banking, capital markets, insurance, pension scheme and electronic money institutions.
The Joint Forum is an international group bringing together financial regulatory representatives from banking, insurance and securities. It works under the international bodies for these sectors, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS). The group develops guidance, principles and identifies best practices that are of common interest to all three sectors.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) is a United Kingdom financial services regulatory body, formed as one of the successors to the Financial Services Authority (FSA). The authority is responsible for the prudential regulation and supervision of banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms. It sets standards and supervises financial institutions at the level of the individual firm. Although it was initially structured as a limited company wholly owned by the Bank of England, the PRA's functions have now been taken over by the Bank and are exercised through the Prudential Regulation Committee. The company has since been liquidated.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is an agency of the European Union located in Paris.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) is a regulatory agency of the European Union headquartered in La Défense, Île-de-France. Its activities include conducting stress tests on European banks to increase transparency in the European financial system and identifying weaknesses in banks' capital structures.
Foreign exchange regulation is a form of financial regulation specifically aimed at the Forex market that is decentralized and operates with no central exchange or clearing house. Due to its decentralized and global nature, the foreign exchange market has been more prone to foreign exchange fraud and has been less regulated than other financial markets.
The Single Resolution Board (SRB) is an EU agency that was established in Brussels in 2015 as part of the broader set of reforms known as the banking union. It acts as the bank resolution authority for a subset of banks in the euro area and as the institutional hub of the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM). Resolution is the restructuring of a bank by a resolution authority through the use of resolution tools in order to safeguard public interests, including the continuity of the bank's critical functions and financial stability, at minimal costs to taxpayers.
