 |
Best bank: Nordea |
In its core market of Finland, Nordea has a roughly 30% market share of consumer lending and personal deposits and of mortgage lending. It has even higher shares of corporate business, with 36% of lending and 43% of corporate deposits. In Finland, Nordea is truly a giant among banks. However, Finland itself accounts for just 15% of the Nordea Group’s loans and 16% of profits.
Over recent years, Nordea has used its scale and diversification to increase volumes and drive down the cost-income ratio to the benefit of both shareholders and customers in its core markets.
Lending to corporate customers in Finland increased by 5% in the first quarter of 2009 on the first quarter of 2008. The payback to the bank was in higher margins, up by 25 basis points. Nordea grew its lending to Finnish households by 7% in the first quarter of 2009 over the first quarter of 2008 and strove to meet increased demand for low-risk and hedged savings products and to provide interest rate caps to Finnish households worried about the gap between low deposit rates and rising loan margins.