SWEDEN’S SEB AND Svenska Handelsbanken, and Denmark’s Danske Bank all featured in the Euromoney FX survey’s top-10 most improved by market share list. The Nordic banks generally made gains in market share with institutional clients. All three banks stressed the importance of providing “client service of the highest quality throughout the crisis”, as Niklas Karlsson, Danske’s global head of FX spot, options and emerging markets, put it. This has stood the banks in good stead as, post-crisis, clients re-evaluate their liquidity providers.
Scandinavian banks, despite their exposure in many cases to the troubled economies of the Baltic States, have survived the financial crisis in relatively good shape.
Sweden’s SEB is the stand-out performer among the region’s banks. It breaks into the top 20 for the first time. Its overall market share has increased by close to 50%, the fourth-biggest single rise. And the bank has transformed its position in FX trading with banks, increasing its market share by a whopping 235% on last year.
SEB’s strategy has been to grow across all client segments in its northern European home markets and selectively with financial institutions and banks globally. Joachim Alpen, the bank’s head of FX, says: “We have always had a strong market-leading position in Sweden and in the last few years we have put a lot of focus and effort into strengthening our position in the rest of the Nordics. Last year we saw that strategy paying off with a substantial increase in our volume and market share in Norway, Denmark and Finland. This increased traction has been across all segments: corporates, institutional and local banks.”
SEB’s other objective was the development of business outside the Nordic region. “Outside of Scandinavia we have focused on financial institutions – hedge funds, real money and banks – across continental Europe, north America and Asia. Selling our Scandinavian competence and prime brokerage offering has been a successful strategy,” says Alpen. The focus has paid off, with SEB the fourth most improved for market share with real money accounts in this year’s survey.
Denmark’s Danske has had an up-and-down performance in the FX survey over the past few years. In 2007 it ranked 25th overall, but fell to 29th place in 2008. This year, it rises seven places to just outside the top 20, in 21st place. The bank’s overall market share has risen 45% compared with last year and, at 0.53%, is now almost twice what it was in 2008.
Recently Danske has put a particular emphasis on sales to financial institutions: “Danske has a large interbank sales team and we recently merged institutional sales with hedge fund sales – synergies are already being seen,” says Karlsson.
Danske feeds prices into most of the major multi-bank platforms across the G10 currencies but uses its own proprietary platform in its latest initiative to increase its share of client-bank business in the Middle East, India and Singapore. In this year’s survey Danske is the fifth most improved bank overall.
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“We have built up one the strongest research teams in Scandinavia” John-Arne Saetre, Handelsbanken |
Svenska Handelsbanken, which this year rises from 39th to 35th place in the overall rankings, has an approach that appears to be the most conservative of the three. The bank’s head of trading, John-Arne Saetre, says: “Our customers want a trustworthy counterpart that they can rely on; not only when times are good but through the whole economic cycle. Here we will just continue in the same way as we have done in the past and being the oldest listed company on the Swedish stock exchange is one way of explaining what we see as a long-term commitment. We have focused on building real value and benefits for our customers. This work has been conducted over several years and affects the investment bank on all different levels.” This philosophy still demands constant product development, Saetre says. “For instance, we were the first to create Nordic investable currency indices. These were especially designed for institutions and corporates with Nordic exposure.”
Saetre also stresses the value of a good research offering. “We have built up one the strongest research teams in Scandinavia, with one focus – creating true value for our customers,” he says.
Saetre sums up Svenska’s approach. “The key is the long-term commitment in combination with a clear goal to be the best,” he says. “This is a mission that forms all the different product areas within the investment bank, Handelsbanken Capital Markets.”
