Best bank:
Merita
Best debt house:
ABN AMRO
Best equity house:
Enskilda Securities
Best M&A house:
JPMorgan
Winner of the best bank award for Finland is again Merita, part of the Nordea group. The bank continues to build on its values of good customer service and technological innovation in the Finnish market. Merita's share of the retail market in Finland is 38%, with a high proportion of these customers taking full advantage of its advanced internet banking system and its online market portal, Solo. Solo enables Merita's customers to make secure online purchases with instant payment. The portal brings over 600 companies that accept electronic payments via the system to users, a solid endorsement of the security of the system. The vast majority of these companies, some 470, are Finnish.
In addition to its successful retail operations, Merita leads in private banking, offering investment services to high-net-worth individuals.
The Finnish private-banking operation is particularly strong. The group's total assets under management amount to e105 billion ($90 billion). Private banking accounts for around a quarter of this and is expected to increase significantly in the near future.