The three major banking groups in the Nordic and Baltic regions – Danske Bank, Nordea and SEB – have substantially different profiles. Danske Bank is the largest by assets and enjoyed strong asset growth of 12.64% in the year to the end of March 2007, returning a respectable – though not overwhelming – 15.96% on equity over the period. In contrast, Nordea, which has similarly sized assets, grew them by just 6.56% but returned an impressive 22.31% on equity. Third-ranked SEB has an impressive 20.36% return on equity but asset growth that at 2.37% can only be considered sluggish given the strong economies of the Nordic and Baltic countries. On balance, Nordea – which has enjoyed extremely swift asset growth in some core markets such as Sweden – deserves to be called the best regional bank group....
