Global Private Banking Awards 2016: Winners’ Profiles – National Winners (Northern Europe)

Best Private Bank in Denmark
Best Private Bank in Norway
Nordea Private Banking 

Nordea Private Banking is the largest private bank in the Nordics, offering wealth planning, investment advice and portfolio management services to customers across the region.

Last year, and despite a challenging market environment, the bank saw its business grow across the entire region.

Nordea has focused its strategy on strengthening its value proposition by offering highly customised services to its customers, such as dedicated solutions for entrepreneurs and business owners, succession planning and philanthropy services. 

In Norway, the tailored solutions for business owners and corporates were well received, in particular due to a comprehensive set of services including in-house legal services. At a time of increasing regulatory complexity, Nordea has also entered strategic partnerships with market leading providers of accounting and audit services.

Offering clients flexibility when it comes to interacting with their private banking advisers is key to the business. “We believe in letting the client decide when, how and where they want to meet us. Our goal is to offer the possibility to do so, ensuring the highest quality of service, regardless of the setting,” explains Thorben Sander, Nordea’s head of global private banking. “The relationship between our clients and advisers is at the heart of our business model.” 

The expansion of its digital capabilities is also a main focus. The bank is working on a number of initiatives to target the next generation of customers, and has recently introduced ‘e-branches’ where meetings are held via Skype or over the phone with shared screens.

“We need to make sure that clients do not feel left behind, but also address their justified concerns regarding the evolvement of the traditional adviser-client relationship,” he adds.

“Our industry presents constant challenges such as changing consumer preferences, digitalisation and increased regulatory requirements. We believe that the investments we made throughout the past year put us in a strong position to address these challenges going forward,” Mr Sander concludes. PG

Best Private Bank in Finland
Danske Bank

Danske Bank Finland has had a fight on its hands to differentiate itself from larger domestic and international competitors in wealth management, but it has acquitted itself remarkably well. 

The bank has a market share of only about 12 per cent in wealth management in the country, behind Nordea and OP, which are able to grab business through their extensive branch networks. Assets under management were €3.7bn ($4.1bn) in 2015, with 73 staff.

“Compared to our Finnish competitors we are differentiating ourselves by focusing on the higher end client segments and more holistic approach to advisory,” says Kimmo Laaksonen, head of private wealth management at Danske Bank Finland, part of Denmark’s Danske Bank Group. “We have full wealth planning capabilities that take into account all asset classes and the complexities of taxation in order to enable customers to plan their lives ahead.” 

Other complex issues in which his division has sought to make a name for its expertise include wealth planning issues involving company ownership, “and in some cases holdings in several countries”. 

So much for the threat within; what about the threat without? “When it comes to global private banks our clear competitive advantage is that we can provide strong local presence and expertise together with digital services that are among the most sophisticated in Europe,” he says. “For example, mobile investment services, online meetings with customers and notifications of important events in their investment portfolios are part of our everyday business.”

Its digital banking solutions include an award-winning mobile bank, a tablet bank, an online meeting solution, peer to peer mobile money transfer and Danske Guide, a communication tool for contacting clients with advice and messages through online banking. DT

Best Private Bank in Sweden
Best Private Bank in the Nordics
Best Private Bank in the Baltic Countries
SEB Private Banking 

SEB Private Banking has shown healthy growth in recent years, with a growth in AuM that partly reflects decent net inflows. The bank has shepherded its clients well during the volatile financial markets of recent times – steering clients towards lower-risk products. An example of new launches in 2015 is a multi-strategy hedge fund. 

Asked what the biggest issue currently faced by customers is, Martin Gärtner, global head of SEB Private Banking, says: “With the current negative rate environment the greatest challenge is to maintain or increase returns to clients.” Given this, 2015 has seen a focus on increasing the bank’s offering of credit-related funds. 

It has also diversified its product offering. Recent launches include a global ESG equity fund that works in line with SEB’s methodology for global stock selection and has received a five star rating from Morningstar, and a new SEB private equity fund, Industrial Opportunities, which has proved popular. Other relatively exotic new products include microfinance funds, described by Mr Gärtner as “an interesting product with a clear focus on sustainability and good stable returns”. 

Within its Swedish home market, the bank runs the SEB Private Banking Annual Small and Midcap Event, at which company CEOs in effect pitch their businesses to the bank’s clients. “Profit growth for large Nordic companies has been moderate during the past five years at slightly above 2 per cent; listening to fast-growing companies with bright potential is therefore wildly attractive,” says Mr Gärtner. The 2016 event involved eight companies, each from a different sector, and more than 100 private banking customers. 

“The objective is not solely on stock performance during one year but more on long-term performance,” says Mr Gärtner. He notes that since SEB launched the event eight years ago, some of the companies picked have done extremely well, with a return above 1300 per cent for Vitrolife, which offers products and services for assisted reproduction. 

SEB has also invested significantly in digital initiatives. “In 2015, we continued digitalising parts of the advisory process, and this is being intensified this year,” says Mr Gärtner, who notes that parts of the onboarding process have been digitalised. 

“We see our clients have an increasingly mobile and digital behaviour. Therefore, the mix of digital and physical client interaction is key in our client relationship,” he notes. Looking at the private bank’s broader digital philosophy, he stresses that digitalisation forms an “important complement” to “our personal face-to-face meetings with our clients”, rather than a replacement. DT