Svenska Handelsbanken: universalist aspirations
Many market participants in the Nordic region expect that mergers will not only cross borders but also stretch into other regions. For the most part the second possibility remains speculation. The notable exception has been Dutch bank ABN Amro's acquisition of Stockholm-based brokerage Alfred Berg.
In Denmark ABN Amro is already a big player in the Nordic region, boasting more people on the ground than any other foreign bank with the possible exception of Citibank. The bulk are based in the bank's pristine two-floor offices in Copenhagen's rejuvenated Midtermolen quay, a docklands development north of the city centre. There, 125 staff rub shoulders, 75 in commercial banking; the rest in treasury, fixed income, sales, trading and research. The team is an amalgam of the original ABN that came to Copenhagen in 1983, the small Alicon brokerage it acquired in the late 1980s, the Amro side of the business that existed when the full merger came, and the fixed-income side of the Alfred Berg business which has been merged into ABN Amro while the equity parts of Alfred Berg remain separate.
In Sweden, the team includes former Alfred Berg fixed-income subsidiary Transferator, and now has a new combination of staff from the head bank and its subsidiaries.