To start with, it is the leading financial institution in the Nordic area. That in itself has a value because the market leader can to a certain degree set its own terms. It is an operation that is driven very much by customer need. I consider competence as the strongest means of competition. Many banks might say similar things – banks are not that different. Very much of the difference comes in implementation, who is talking and who is doing.
How do you characterize the Nordic banking industry?
Extremely efficient and in the forefront when it comes to technology. And it has a very demanding group of customers.
What makes the Nordic region ripe for bank consolidation?
The size in itself of the banks. That is why I work on the Nordic concept because I am trying to contribute to the redeWnition of the markets. The fact that you are big in Sweden, for instance, does not necessarily mean that you are a very big bank. We are after having merged and merged now number 20 in Europe. Therefore it’s a question of the big European banks having an advantage when it comes to cost cutting and synergies that still can be achieved in these areas.
What have you learned from orchestrating bank mergers?
According to statistics, most mergers actually fail. If you look at what is important to make a merger successful it is not the mechanically calculated synergies, it is a question of having the same vision and the same goals and the same assessment of the environment. Another factor is that you should put management in place very quickly because if you drag that out in time you will have problems. Someone has said that in the future you will only have two companies, the quick and the dead. If you look at mergers that have failed you can see examples where only one single person has been appointed below chief executive within three months. We had 300 people appointed, all the top positions in place, within three to four weeks.
The top people knew exactly what their responsibilities were. Experience in mergers is important. If you have management that has merged before, at least they avoid the mistakes they made the first time.
How have you dealt with differences in corporate cultures in your experience with merging?
I want these processes to look easy but they’re not. You have to show a very particular respect. People are different and nations are different and there is a richness in being different. It is very important that you let many flowers flourish. Even if you play according to the same rules in soccer, the game can be very diVerent. You wouldn’t find one single game that is exactly the same as another and they play all the time, they’ve played for hundreds of years. And the same goes for a company. You need to have some basic common values and rules of the game. But within that you should allow individuals and cultures to be different. And you should not just allow for it, you should enjoy it.
The internet is very important to Nordic Baltic Holdings. How will you develop your use of it?
We have no ambition to distance internet banking from branch banking. This is an integrated part of the banking operation. We are under some pressure now from industrial analysts saying we should now box in the internet bank and put it out on the market and get the IT value on the stocks so we can make money. Well, the following day we would have to create internet for the whole operation again because our bank is an interplay between the internet and traditional bank and the personal side.
How will you balance the personal side of banking with the internet and closing of branches?
Most people need some time in life to have face to face contact with the bank, if not very often. What we are aiming for is a multi-dimensional bank. We are increasing the number of interfaces with the client so the internet takes care of all the routine matters like payment and trading.
The important part of the branch office will be the advisory services, very often at a pre-booked time, for an hour about the Wnancing of the house or a long-term savings pattern.
I have two children that have bought houses. They do all their banking on the internet but when they bought their houses they wanted to sit down and talk to a person, face to face.
How do you interpret the term ‘pan-Nordic’?
It boils down to geography. It’s very much a question of geography, climate, small countries, values, political systems, very strong democracies, trade. It’s what I would say pan-Nordic in that respect. It’s an extremely multi-dimensional question.
Where will the sector go from here?
You should not only focus on the concept of banks because the financial market is redefining itself every day. You wake up one morning and your competitor on deposits is a retail chain in groceries. Or you have another new card competitor that takes care of payments. And a number of candidates would like to come in and compete on the internet side, on the financial side.
Provided that you acquire a major player in the Norwegian markets where will you go from there?
I wouldn’t say the sky is the limit but there is a big potential within the Nordic area because it is certainly a strong part of Europe. It is not Lombardia, not Germany, but it is well oV. In asset management we are already working outside the Nordic area in the German-speaking countries with our asset management activity. Unidanmark has a lot of leverage on the asset management side.
We can also Wnd growth opportunities through the internet.But in my book that cannot be on a stand-alone basis. We have to do that with someone else because what you need is not only technique, and when I say technique it’s not only IT technique but also marketing technique, the right concept of buying behaviour, but you need a customer base.
I don’t think we should open our mouths too much. I think we should be reasonably humble in this.
