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.
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany, and the United Kingdom, the bank's operations are focused on corporate and investment banking services to corporate and institutional clients. The bank was founded in 1972 by the Swedish Wallenberg family, which is still SEB's largest shareholder through major investment company Investor AB. SEB is the largest Swedish bank by both market capitalisation and total assets.
A financial institution, sometimes called a banking institution, is a business entity that provides service as an intermediary for different types of financial monetary transactions. Broadly speaking, there are three major types of financial institution:
- Depository institution – deposit-taking institution that accepts and manages deposits and makes loans, including bank, building society, credit union, trust company, and mortgage broker;
- Contractual institution – insurance company and pension fund
- Investment institution – investment bank, underwriter, and other different types of financial entities managing investments.
Svenska Handelsbanken AB is a Swedish bank providing banking services including traditional corporate transactions, investment banking and trading as well as consumer banking including insurance. Handelsbanken is one of the major banks in Sweden with a nationwide branch network.
The Government Pension Fund of Norway is the sovereign wealth fund collective owned by the government of Norway. It consists of two entirely separate sovereign wealth funds: the Government Pension Fund Global and the Government Pension Fund Norway.
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.
DNB ASA is Norway's largest financial services group, with total combined assets of more than NOK 1.9 trillion and a market capitalisation NOK 164 billion as of 20 May 2016. DNB's head office is located in Oslo.
Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse, branded domestically as Kreditkassen or K-Bank and internationally as Christiania Bank+ was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1848 and 2000 when it merged with MeritaNordbanken and became Nordea. The bank had its headquarters in Oslo and was Norway's second largest bank at the time of the merger.
Glitnir was an international Icelandic bank. It was created by the state-directed merger of the country's three privately held banks - Alþýðubanki, Verzlunarbanki and Iðnaðarbanki - and one failing publicly held bank - Útvegsbanki - to form Íslandsbanki in 1990. At the time, Íslandsbanki was the only major privately held commercial bank in Iceland. It was publicly listed on the Iceland Stock Exchange, in 1993. Íslandsbanki subsequently merged with FBA Icelandic Investment Bank in 2000.
The Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) is an international financial institution founded in 1975 by the five Nordic countries. In 2005, the three Baltic states also became members of the Bank. NIB’s headquarters are located in Helsinki, Finland. NIB acquires the funds for its lending by borrowing on the international capital markets.
DNB A/S The Bank’s head office is located in Copenhagen, while the Bank has operations in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania. The latter three operate as subsidiaries of the bank. Bank DnB NORD Group has approx. 3,100 employees, 930,000 customers and a consolidated balance sheet of approx. EUR 10.0 billion.
Eika Gruppen, formerly Terra-Gruppen, branded as Terra is a strategic alliance among 77 local Norwegian savings banks that co-ordinates work within the areas defined as falling within the alliance. The group supplies products and services to banks and other actors within the financial sector. The services of Eika include product development, procurement of services and products relating to information technology and payment processing, project management, training and expertise development. The financial companies provides a wide range of financial products, including securities, insurance and real estate agencies, financing and debit cards and credit cards. The alliance has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway, and the ownerbanks has a total assets of NOK 250 billion.
The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Finance is a Norwegian ministry established in 1814. The ministry is responsible for state finance, including the state budget, taxation and economic policy in Norway. It is led by Trygve Slagsvold Vedum. The department must report to the Parliament of Norway.
The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway is a Norwegian government agency responsible for supervision of financial companies within Norway based on law and regulations from Storting, the Norwegian Ministry of Finance and international accounting standards. The agency is located in Oslo and is under the supervision of the Ministry of Finance.
The Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political event in Iceland between 2008 and 2010. It involved the default of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks in late 2008, following problems in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposits in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Relative to the size of its economy, Iceland's systemic banking collapse was the largest of any country in economic history. The crisis led to a severe recession and the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests.
The 1988–1992 Norwegian banking crisis was the largest financial crisis that occurred in Europe since the end of World War II within Norway. The crisis emerged from a backdrop of financial deregulation, which unleashed a wave of perilous credit operations and a subsequent lending frenzy. The elimination of lending rate constraints led Norwegian banks to partake in high-risk activities, resulting in diminished household investments. However, the situation worsened when oil prices plummeted in 1985, inducing a deficit and devaluation of the Norwegian krone, thereby triggering a recession as both public and private institutions consolidated their financial positions.
ISO/IEC 4909 is a 2006 international standard produced by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) for Identification cards — Financial transaction cards — Magnetic stripe data content for track 3. It was reviewed in 2018. The original ISO 4909 standard appeared in 1987. It is one of a number of international bank card standards. The standard is used for credit cards.
Nordnet AB (publ), commonly shortened to Nordnet, is a pan-Nordic financial services company, headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. Nordnet was founded in 1996, becoming the first Internet broker in Sweden, and has expanded since to provide other saving and investment services. The company is divided into three business areas, Savings and investments, Loans, and Pensions.