Awards for Excellence 2002
Best bank: Svenska Handelsbanken
Best debt house: Citigroup/Schroder Salomon Smith Barney
Best equity house: Enskilda Securities
Best M&A house: Goldman Sachs
Best at risk management and treasury: Citigroup
Best at cash management: Danske Bank
Best at custody: Nordea
Consolidation and expansion has continued to preoccupy many of the banks in the Nordic/Baltic region. In February 2001, two Swedish banks - Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) - proposed a merger that would have created a dominant Nordic player but the project was abandoned in September. SEB and Swedbank have been increasing their interests in the Baltic states. Swedbank owns 60.1% of Hansabank, which wins the best bank award in Estonia, its home market, as well as having a strong presence in Lithuania and Latvia. Since 2000, SEB has been working with Vilniaus Bankas in Lithuania and has integrated Latvijas Unibanka in Latvia. It majority owns Eesti Ühispank in Estonia.
Despite this, Svenska Handelsbanken and Nordea of Sweden and Denmark's Danske Bank dominate. Nordea has been focused on the internal consolidation of its pan-Nordic operations. In December 2001 the banks in the four Nordic countries began to operate under the Nordea brand. Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse in Norway, MeritaNordbanken in Finland and Unidanmark in Denmark.