Dear shareholders and other participants, welcome to this webcast following the annual general meeting held earlier today. [Foreign language] . My name is Ulrika Romantschuk, and I'm Head of Group Brand Communication and Marketing here at Nordea, and I will be the moderator of this event. I have the pleasure of introducing representatives from our top management who are looking very much forward to having a dialogue with you. Let me start with Torbjörn Magnusson, Nordea's Chair, Frank Vang-Jensen, Group President and CEO, Sara Mella, Head of Personal Banking, and Nina Arkilahti, Head of Business Banking. Let me go through the agenda for this webcast. I'll start by presenting the decisions taken by the annual general meeting. This will be followed by video speeches from Nordea's Chair, Torbjörn Magnusson, and CEO Frank Vang-Jensen, where they'll recap the year 2021 and provide insight into Nordea's future.
We will move to the live Q&A session. Finally, you have a chance to hear thoughts from Stephen Hester, a new member of Nordea's board of directors and the future chair of Nordea. Let me give you some guidance how to ask questions via the live chat. This webcast is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Finnish and Swedish. You can choose the language by clicking on the language button below the video player. You can post your questions live through the chat function during the webcast. We'll take as many questions as possible in the session. The question can be posted [Foreign language], in English or [Foreign language ]. We look very much forward to your questions. Let's have a look at the decisions taken by AGM. As said, Nordea's annual general meeting 2022 was held today.
We applied extraordinary meeting procedures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was unfortunately not possible to attend in person. All proposals made by the board of directors and the shareholders nomination board were approved. All decisions made in the AGM will be available on the AGM webpage at nordea.com. Let me highlight the key decisions made. The board was authorized to decide on dividend payment and decided today on a dividend of EUR 0.69 per share, which will be paid on 4th of April , or as soon as possible after that day. 10 members were elected to the board of directors, including four new members. Torbjörn Magnusson was reelected as Chair of the Board until the 30th of September. As of October, the role of Chair will be taken over by Stephen Hester.
The board received an authorization to repurchase up to EUR 350 million in own shares. Nordea has a EUR 1,200 million share buyback program ongoing, and it's in dialogue with the ECB concerning a potential further buyback program. These were the decisions and now let's move to watch a video to get more insight into the development of Nordea's past year. We start with your video, Torbjorn.
Dear shareholders, I warmly welcome you to Nordea's 2022 AGM. We continue to have an extraordinary AGM setup, and consequently, yet again, I'm looking forward to our Q&A session in the afternoon. For a large bank in Europe, at the moment, the geopolitical environment must be part of any commentary. The war in Ukraine will impact global security and also the economy. The Russian invasion is a clear violation of international law, and the world should continue to act together to prevent and end this human suffering. We have also witnessed other global tensions lately, not forgetting COVID-19, which has been very persistent. All this requires determined, stable, and predictable action, and Nordea, as a responsible corporate citizen, will do its part.
Getting back to Nordea and the development of the bank, I am very satisfied that Nordea has delivered such a strong performance and has surpassed its financial targets for 2022 one year ahead of schedule. Since Nordea launched its strategic direction in 2019, it has been able to drive very high customer activity, leading to growing business volumes, higher market shares, and improved customer satisfaction. In addition, the bank has substantially lowered risks and less volatility in terms of income generation. As a result, Nordea is distinctly more profitable than before, indeed one of the most profitable banks in Europe. From a shareholder perspective, all this has led to market-leading shareholder returns. Today, the AGM is asked to authorize the board to decide on a dividend payment of EUR 0.69 per share.
This is of course in line with Nordea's dividend policy and the 60%-70% payout ratio. On top of this, the share buyback program continues. Nordea has been one of the first movers among the European banks on buybacks. This is a sign about quality and capital strength. Going forward, the plan is to continue share buybacks to distribute excess capital. These significant shareholder returns have been the result of Nordea's strong financial performance. I would like to thank Frank and his leadership team, as well as all the great employees of Nordea for their strong contributions towards making this happen. Nordea's remuneration policy is now closely aligned with both the overall strategy, both in terms of financial and non-financial goals. Going forward, a sustainability target will also be integrated into the remuneration scheme.
This demonstrates that Nordea is ready to deliver consistently on sustainability targets and to capture the business opportunities this theme provides. Nordea has come a long way, transforming into a very well-performing company, and in only two and a half years with a new leadership team. This means that there is no need for the bank to change its course significantly in the coming period. Nordea's strategy update for 2022-2025 is a natural continuation of the strategic direction initiated in 2019. There are still many areas which can be further developed and accelerated. The new strategy was approved by the board in February and is built on customer centricity, profitable and focused growth, further improved operational efficiency, and capital excellence. In reaching its financial target, a return on equity above 13%, Nordea will be an even stronger leader in the Nordic and European banking markets.
The board is strongly committed to supporting the bank in taking the next steps in and reaching the next level. I would like to thank Claudia Dill, Nigel Hinshelwood, Kari Jordan, and Sarah Russell for their contributions as members of the board. I would also like to welcome Lene Skole, Arja Talma, and Kjersti Wiklund as new board members. I would further like to welcome Stephen Hester, who will take over the duties of the chair later this year. With all the progress made and with Stephen's experience and expertise, Nordea will be in very good hands. I very much look forward to continuing the work with Stephen, the new board, and the leadership team. It is difficult to get to the top, but even harder to stay there, they say, and to improve even further. It requires discipline, determination, and professionalism, something I see every day at Nordea nowadays.
I am confident that Nordea will keep the momentum and deliver also on the new set of targets based on a constant drive to meet and surpass our clients' expectations.
Thank you, Torbjörn , for sharing your thoughts with us. We've been living exceptional times for some years already now due to the prolonged pandemic, and now more recently due to the invasion, Russia's invasion of Ukraine. These events have impacted and will continue to impact our societies. From your perspective as the chair, how have we managed at Nordea?
I think we managed really well, and I think that we've taken great strides in 2021 towards becoming a much more customer-focused organization thanks to big efforts from all employees at Nordea. That way, we've supported our societies in these rather unstable times. Great performance, I think.
That sounds good. Now we're reaching for the next level with an updated strategy, a new target. Looking back at the previous period, 2019-2021, how would you summarize Nordea's performance?
Well, today you will have seen that we reached our targets, 12 months ahead of schedule, so, a very, very promising start. Looking forward to the next planning period of three years. Thank you.
Thank you, Torbjörn. Let's move onwards and watch Frank's video speech, please.
Dear shareholders, the annual general meeting often looks back to early achievements and results. Today, our main focus is on the future, but we also need to recognize the developments in the external environment. The world around us is fragile. It is an unfortunate fact. The war in Ukraine, other global tensions, and even the continued pandemic are impacting all of us. The war and the violence orchestrated by the Russian administration is a clear violation of international law, and it causes horrible human suffering. We condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Our thoughts are with all who are suffering, fearing for their lives, and worried for their loved ones. We will carry our role in society and be there for our people and customers, help the people of Ukraine, and ensure the continuity of our business.
Nordea is a strong bank and continues to be a safe, trusted, and stable partner for its customers, employees, shareholders, and broader society. In these turbulent times, it is more important than ever. Despite the pandemic and the external environment, we have improved our ability to serve our customers in their preferred way. We have improved customer satisfaction, and customer complaints have decreased significantly. For Nordea, 2021 was a milestone year. We maintained our strong performance and surpassed our 2022 financial targets one year ahead of schedule. All of our business areas met their respective targets. Since we started the repositioning of the bank in 2019, our total shareholder return has been 107% by the end of 2021, and we are clearly outperforming our peers. This demonstrates both our strong financial performance and our ability to deliver value for our shareholders.
Our performance improvements have also led to a significant payout to our shareholders. We have paid out EUR 6 billion in dividends over this past three years, and we're one of the first banks in Europe to start implementing share buybacks in 2021. We could not have achieved these results without our skilled, passionate, and very dedicated employees. I would like to thank all of them for their great efforts. I would also like to thank you, our shareholders and customers, for your very good cooperation over the past few years. We are proud of what we have achieved within the last two and a half years, but now it is time to turn the page and take the next steps. We have entered the new strategy period 2022-2025 from a position of strength.
Our strategy for the coming period is about delivering the best-in-class Omni-channel customer experiences, raising the bar on our financial performance, and in this way, driving further value creation. We will deliver all this in a sustainable way and develop the bank for the future. Our new financial target for 2025, a Return on Equity above 13%, and I mean better than 13, is a firm target, and we are committed to delivering. This means that we will be the best bank or among the best banks in the Nordic and European markets. In order to reach our target, we have reshaped our key priorities, which are to create the best Omni-channel customer experience to drive focused and profitable growth and to increase operational and capital efficiency.
We will also activate two key levers cutting across the entire bank, being a digital leader among our peers and integrating sustainability into the core of our business. Our updated vision is to be the preferred partner for Nordic customers in a need of a broad range of financial services. Plans and priorities are worth very little without the determination to deliver. That is why we have a relentless focus on execution. This is what we are doing, raising the bar on our financial performance, driving the best-in-class omni-channel customer experiences, ensure that the bank is well-equipped for the future. Most importantly, we will create further value. When we create further value for our shareholders, for our customers, and employees, we create value for the broader society. That is our way forward. Thank you. [Foreign language].
Frank, as we just discussed with Torbjörn , we are living exceptional and sad times. In your video speech, you said that we are going to raise the bar, and you also highlighted the target for 2025. This one was announced earlier in this year. Due to the new circumstances, do we need to review the target?
First of all, what's happening in Ukraine, the war is filling me with a deep sadness. It's very concerning. Indeed we strongly condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine. When it comes to our financial targets, it is a long-term target, 2025 targets, and we are committed to that target. There's no reason for changing anything, or at least as of now, there's no reason changing anything. When it comes to our direct exposures in Nordea to Russia and Ukraine, these are very, very limited, and we have no banking operations in Russia anymore. All in all, the direct risks of Nordea are very, very limited.
Great to hear that we stick to our commitment. Thank you, Frank. Let's now hear some thoughts of our Head of Personal Banking, Sara Mella, and Head of Business Banking, Nina Arkilahti. Sara, I will start with you. You're leading the biggest business at Nordea in terms of numbers of customers. How would you describe last year from the customer's perspective, and what can they wait from the years to come?
Well, last year was a very active year. Our customers continued to invest in their homes and holiday homes, and we then saw quite high demand for mortgages. The mortgage volumes actually grew greatly. Also last year, with the very strong investment market that activated our customers to think of their savings and investments, and also seek for advice. Savings advisory was very, very clear in our activities with customers. Also, our customers experienced good returns from our funds and overall from the equity market. Maybe one more thing to mention from last year was that we saw our customers using our digital services more and more, and actually high levels of new mobile banking app users and also the intensity in the usage increased.
For example, the log-ins in the mobile banking app reached an all-time high level, you know, more than one billion log-ins, which is actually quite amazing number. Also visits to our product store in the mobile bank app also increased significantly. Then, Ulrika, to your question in terms of what to expect, what can our customers expect going forward? Short-term, the uncertainty around us now due to the situation in Europe and world overall will create volatility in the investment market, and that might impact, you know, some of our customers to be quite confused. I want to highlight that we are here to support, to give advice, and help our customers to navigate in this time.
Longer-term, I think our customers can expect that there will be growth in the housing market. Probably not as high growth as we've seen last year, but the underlying needs, very natural needs of needing a new home, they are there. You know, different life events, you need to think of where to live, and you might need more room, and so forth. That the natural growth is there. Probably short-term, there might be some postponement of decisions because of the uncertainty, but the longer term, there is growth. Maybe last thing to mention what to expect is that I can say that our customers can expect more good digital services that we will provide. For example, we will bring new digital onboarding for customers to.
It will be easier to become a customer and bank with us. Also, new services in the savings area. I would say that, let's navigate through this challenging time now, and then I think there's many good things to expect.
Isn't it so that our mobile app has quite good rankings, so by having even more services, we can expect that to continue?
That is exactly our plan, that we will continue to bring good services and stay on top of the ranking, with our mobile banking app.
Thank you, Sara. Nina, let's talk a little bit about sustainability. Sustainability is an integral part of Nordea's strategy, and it's also high on the agenda for our corporate customers. At Nordea, we are committed to reducing carbon emissions across our lending and investment portfolio by 40%-50% by 2030. How are we working with our customers to meet these targets in practice, really?
Our customers want to transition to a more sustainable operating model. They need our advice for that, and that is why we are engaging in dialogue with the customers of how and what the transition plans are that are ambitious, credible, and come with a timeline. For this, we have trained our frontline people, colleagues, to take these dialogues so that we, in the best possible way, can support, advise, and finance the investments needed in the transition.
We have a common interest here with our customers.
Absolutely we do.
A more sustainable future.
Absolutely.
Thank you, Nina. Now we will start with the Q&A session, and I have my iPad here, and I'll get the questions here. Remember, we are happy to take as many as possible, and you are free to pose them. Let's start with Frank. Ukraine is on people's minds and heart, and the question goes: Has the war in Ukraine and the related sanctions had any impact on Nordea's business? What are the main direct and indirect impacts to Nordea and its customers? What would you say to that, Frank?
I would say that it has, of course, implications for customers, and that's where we start. Then the implication of ours is to execute on the sanctions that are posed. We are, of course, very committed to get everything right and ensure that we follow all the sanctions from different countries, different types. I think that we are managing that very well. For our customers, of course, there are implications because it, by nature, comes very fast, and we try to help them to navigate through this.
Thank you. Let's move to a totally different topic, and this question is for you, Torbjörn. How come that the group leadership team members own so few Nordea shares? Shouldn't they have their skin in the game and be incentivized to deliver shareholder value and increase in the share price? What.
Well, Ulrika, I think defining little and few shares, that's much definition. Anyway, of course, their interest should be aligned with the shareholders. Already now we have the principle that some of the short-term incentives need to be invested in shares, and also part of the payment with the long-term incentive programs, if there are any, will be allocated to acquiring shares.
There's a strong commitment.
Yes.
Thank you, Torbjörn. To Frank, we have all read a lot of news around cyberattacks recently, including one against Nordea. What are you and Nordea doing to safeguard against these issues, and what is the magnitude of costs connected to cybersecurity?
Cybersecurity is a non-financial risk that is on top of, I should say, all companies, or at least most companies, have at the moment. In Nordea we have worked with the topic for long and are continuously strengthening our setup basically to be as strong as possible to hinder any attacks. I think that we just have to continue to stay very alert and continuously improve our skills within these areas. It doesn't go for Nordea only, as I said. It goes for basically most organizations in the world.
Yeah. The whole society is impacted.
Yes. Yes.
Yes. I will continue with you, Frank. The new target, 13% ROE, does that mean that there will be higher fees for our customers?
The target, first of all, is a return on equity, a target above 13, and by that I mean better than 13%. Our plan is built on a number of levers. It is about creating the best cost omni-channel customer experiences. It is about creating income growth by being very active, doing more business, and then it is about capital and cost efficiency. That is basically a lifestyle, continuously try to be in good shape. Now we have added the capital excellence on top of it as we have the levers nowadays, which we didn't have two years ago or one year ago.
If you combine that, then it becomes a plan that is built on a healthy, strong cost culture and then continuously growing Nordea, and that will lead to a return above 13%.
Many things.
Yes.
At the same time.
Yes.
Thank you, Frank. I will move over to Sara and Omni-channel experiences. What practical steps will you take to really reach that goal so that we can create the best experience in the market?
With Omni-channel, we aim that we will be the best one in the market to combining digital services and our advisory, you know, bringing in the human advisory in addition to easy services done digitally. With that, we do need data, and we will invest in data and use data to create insights to our customers.
With data, you mean the behavior of the customers.
Exactly. What is it that the customers could actually benefit of from our ideas and suggestions to them, and therefore they make, you know, good and wise decisions on their finances. It's also very much about easiness for our customers to switch to, you know, start a loan application in the mobile banking app and then continue easily the discussion with an advisor online or even physical or continue in Netbank, all channels available. Of course, the data needs to flow easily between channels so that it's easy for the customers, no need to start again. We will invest in data to do that.
We will also invest in digital services and sales to be more active towards our customers to bring them these insights and ideas for them to make good decisions.
That sounds smooth. Thank you. Nina, let's continue with sustainability and ESG. We have published corporate level targets, but what about sector-specific targets? Are there any hurdles to do that?
We are working with the sector-specific targets, and we do that in a risk-based way. We start with the most polluting, most emission-heavy sectors. Of course, there are hurdles. We don't know everything yet, but we learn as we go. It's very important that this is so integrated to our normal way of operating, to our credit processes, because we really want to have the customers in our portfolios that are willing and able to make a transition. Very good plans and very clear, but not every detail yet there. We work on it.
More to come, in other words.
More to come.
Thank you, Nina. Over to you, Torbjörn. You also talked about sustainability and targets in your video greeting. There will be remuneration schemes in the management's targets. What does this really mean in practice?
Yes, Ulrika, and of course, we have worked with ESG for a long time at Nordea, but never collated it under that heading. We have targets in the short-term incentives based on green financing, on gender equality, of course, and in principle also on improving the sustainability processes around the group. We'll also consider introducing this to the long-term incentives going forward.
That sounds really good. Thank you, Torbjörn. I'll move over to you, Frank. How is Nordea performing compared to its competitors in the area, in particular of profitability?
That depends on which competitors you are looking at. Let's try to divide it. If we compare to our peers in rest of Europe or south from Nordic and south, we are beating basically, if not most, or if not all, then at least most of them. When it comes to the peers that we are meeting in the Nordic societies in which we operate, which is the main focus we are having, then I should say that the last two and a half years has been about closing the gap to our peers. We have done that now, and are in a good position. We are entering the strategy period 2022-2025 from a position of strength. Our aim, of course, is to be the best.
That sounds like a really good plan. Let me continue, Frank. How do the higher interest rate impact Nordea's net interest income? Is the impact one-off or a permanent one?
When it comes to Net Interest Income, then I should say, I would say that it will have a positive impact. The tricky part or the tricky question that most, I should say, banks are asking themselves at the moment is that inflation will normally lead to higher interest rates, but inflation will also lead to costs and to some extent also salary levels increasing. The difficult part is now the speed in which we see things happening in the world and it has accelerated the last month, I should say, makes it very difficult to assess what becomes like the end game, the totality. Short-term, inflation, increased interest rates will be positive from there on the NII.
Thank you. Let's raise our eyes a bit and look at the European banking industry, Torbjörn. How do you see the consolidation opportunities in Europe in the banking sector?
I think for the moment, Nordea has excellent plans to develop in the Nordics. As you have seen, we reached the 2022 targets 12 months ahead of schedule, and we have a good development plan for the next period. We live in a turbulent world, but I don't expect there to be consolidation where Nordea participates unless things change more radically than I think at the moment.
The Nordics is the market for Nordea.
That's our priority.
Very good. Sara, let's continue with digitalization. We already actually touched upon it a little bit. What kind of new digital services can we expect for our retail customers?
Well, it is many new services. As I already mentioned, we are bringing in new digital onboarding solution, which will make it easier to become a new customer. We are also, as part of the strategic plans, we have to invest more in the savings business. We are bringing in services that make it easier for our savings and investment customers to purchase and invest. We will also bring more content and insights to our customers to inspire them to make and think of investments and make decisions there. It's in many fronts. We have quite many of the daily banking services already available for our customers. It's now more of adding easiness to the mortgage processes.
Bringing in also more easy way, like automatic loan promise for mortgage customers, as well as adding more for our savings and investment customers to invest.
You said, you talked about data earlier, but do we involve our customers? Can they test something that we are creating, for instance?
Absolutely. As part of developing new services and we are in very tight collaboration with testing services and first of all, listening very carefully what is it that our customers would expect from us and would like us to provide. The development process is done closely with listening customers.
That sounds really good to me. Thank you, Sara. From customers to revenue growth, Frank, if you expect revenue growth that it will be slowed down or impacted by this economic situation that we live, what flexibility do you have to manage the costs, and what would that mean for 1%-2% this cost outlook presented at the CMD?
First of all, when we build our plans, and also this time we have tried to build it on things, at least mostly on things that we sort of control, but of course you cannot control everything. The start point is that we have not planned with the war when we make the plan. The implication of that, probably short-term, will be that the activity in society will be somewhat subdued. Let's see how it will play out for the longer.
If it should happen that the level or the growth of our income, due to slower growth in the societies in which we operate, will be the case, we will be able to work even harder with the cost and the capital levers as well. Looking into like the different scenarios that we have looked into, at least as of now, I don't see any scenarios playing out that should not enable us to deliver on our targets.
Very clear message there. You have said a lot in the CMD that we had earlier in the beginning of the year, and one other area is that we are targeting gaining market share. How will we do this without ending up with significantly higher price competition?
If you take the start point as of now, then we are gaining market share and have been doing that for the last 2.5 years across the board. When you look at the prices of ours, they are on par or higher with our competitors. That goes for mortgages, that goes for SME lending, that goes for large corporate lending. It is about. Very large part of banking is a commodity. Starting to try to win by using the price is a very short-term game. You know, basically you will lose. Our customers will be happy short time until the market will have to turn back to the prices that is needed.
It is about availability, it's about activity, it's about having the best digital services, but combining them with our people, our advisors, in a very smooth, omni-channel experience. In the corporate side, it's about activity, it's about understanding what are the customers that we really choose to work with, and then, using our capabilities as a relationship bank, doing all the business we can with the customers. By doing so, you end up having a very strong customer base that continuously grow and becomes a little bit bigger all the time.
Being there for the customer.
Yes.
Great. From customers to M&A, Frank. There has been some very successful M&A cases like SG Finans and recently Topdanmark. What's your stand on M&A? Could we see more of these in the next few years to come?
Our primary focus is to grow organic. Every time we go to work, we think about how can we continue to help our customers realize their dreams and aspirations? How can we grow the bank? How can we do it a little bit better today than we did yesterday? When we have or find targets which will strengthen you know like the strategic offering of Nordea, helping to like strengthen the offering or you know expanding our geographical footprint within a certain area, we are open to bolt-on acquisitions. The two, actually there are three, acquisitions we have done, Gjensidige Bank in Norway.
Mm.
SG Finans, now renamed to Nordea Finance Equipment, and now last week took Topdanmark Life in Denmark. These are examples. We have the appetite. The target has to be available, and the price, of course, has to be the right one.
Great. Nina, Sara talks a lot about digitalization, but how is it with the services that we offer to our corporate customers? Will we have better and more offering in digital format for them as well?
Absolutely. It has been a clear decision of us all to first go with the personal banking and the private individual customers and then go for the corporate customers. Currently, we cover some 40% of the daily banking needs in the digital channels in self-service format, and it is our target to continue expanding the self-service offerings.
Thank you, Nina. That sounds good. Back to you, Frank. You are popular today. To topics that we already have touched upon, the two core levers for our future growth, digitalization and sustainability.
Mm.
What concrete actions will Nordea take to become a leader in these areas?
Firstly, we are a leader, and we want to stay ahead of our peers in the Nordics. Within digitalization, it is about a lot of activities that are happening across the board. As both Nina and Sara said, we started with personal banking, with retail personal banking, and continuously we have increased the offering, the services done digitally, the easiness to access the services, adding data, making it more relevant. The next step is now to make it more personal. We have a plan for that. It's not rocket science, it's just focus and hard work. Every quarter we try to release new features.
As Nina said, now we are bringing it to the SME sector, and, by the way, also digital savings. There we will do the same, just, of course, directed towards our corporate clients and towards our savings customers. Many activities, and a lot of exciting things to happen in the coming years.
Talking about the coming years, Frank, I have a final questions for you. What are the most important areas to deliver on in order to meet the 2025 targets?
I should say that it is our three key priorities. It is to drive income growth activities. It is to be there for customers, be very active, helping them understand their needs. It is to be very focused on the operational efficiency of the bank, both when it comes to cost and when it comes to capital. It is to be driving or creating the very best omnichannel customer experiences. That is where it starts. It is crucial for us to really deliver here. We are improving every day. Back to what we talked about digital and adding and answering the last part of the question that was sustainability. Sustainability is a lifestyle, and it's not about environment only.
It is really about understanding what are the expectations of a company as Nordea, what is the type of company we want to be, and ensure that we have a firm ESG perspective to all the questions, across the bank. We are having that. We have a new strategy in place, and we are implementing the strategy. We are a leader, and we want to stay ahead.
Thank you, Frank. I also would like to say thank you for all the great questions that we have received so far. Now it's time to take the interview with Stephen Hester. I now have the pleasure of introducing Stephen Hester, who today has been elected as a member of Nordea's board of directors and the Chair from October 2022 onwards. A warm welcome to you, Stephen.
Thank you.
Congratulations on your appointments.
Thank you very much.
I have prepared some questions for you, so let's discuss a little bit. You are known as a highly experienced international business leader with a unique depth and breadth of knowledge gained from various leadership positions within the financial services. We would like to know a little bit more about you, yourself and your background.
Well, thank you for that question. May I first of all say how delighted I am to be here today. It's something I've been looking forward to, and I'm very privileged and grateful that my colleagues, my new colleagues have supported me arriving. Of course, today the shareholders have supported that as well. I look forward to many years of constructive work with the great team at Nordea. I must of course be humble about what I can bring to the party because there are many things for me to learn, and Nordea is already in great shape. I have had, I guess, about 40 years of experience in financial services. I have managed every kind of banking and indeed insurance business in something like 50 countries around the world.
That gives me great experience of what are the good things that can happen in financial services and how do you make them better. Unfortunately, I also have a lot of experience of what are the challenges. Over the last 40 years, there have been many challenges as there will be in the years to come. I hope that I can bring those experiences and help Nordea succeed. Really for me, all of my career has been about trying to figure out how the companies I work for can win for two groups of people. To win for our customers and of course for our shareholders, to create a winning experience for them. That is what I will try to contribute to in the coming years.
Sounds like a great background for us. Now we are in the Nordics, and Nordea has deep roots in the Nordics. For more than 200 years, we played a key role in supporting our customers here, but also in developing the Nordic societies. You also have ties to the Nordics, I've heard. Could you shed some light on these ties?
Well, I should first say that I'm very conscious, of course, that I am not a citizen of any Nordic country. I know that while banking is a very international business, it is also a local business. I believe it is extremely important that Nordea retain very, very strong links culturally and in every way with the societies of the Nordic area. I will be dedicated to ensuring that the board supports the management to make sure that remains the case. I was actually lucky in the first deal I ever did as a banker 40 years ago was raising money for a Swedish company, Forsmarks, in the bond markets.
Mm-hmm.
I was also fascinated to be on a team advising the Swedish Ministry of Finance on the reconstruction of the banking system about 10 years later, which Nordbanken, as it then was a big element. In the last eight years or so, I have been managing Trygg-Hansa and Codan in Sweden and Denmark and Norway in the insurance industry. The Nordics is a place I love personally. I love the capitals. I love the people. I've had a fair amount of business experience, and I'm really looking forward to some more.
Sounds like a win-win then for you and us. I also saved some questions, Stephen, from the audience here, and I would like to ask you about how do you view Nordea's position within the Nordic banking sector?
The first emotion and also thought process I had when I studied Nordea with the idea that maybe I could join the bank was that I believe that this is a company that has the ability to win, to be the best bank in the Nordics. I think that the strategy that has been laid out focusing on the Nordic area, primary concentration on organic improvement, a good business balance across both geography and different kinds of customer and activity. I think these are winning strategies. The management has done a fabulous job in the last two or three years of capitalizing on this position and making it stronger. In general, for me, my conclusion is, let's do more of the same.
Of course, in some ways, the most difficult thing in business is to continuously improve. You can improve companies over a short period, and then the risk is you fall back. It will require a lot of work and many things to go better every year, in order to create the vision of winning for our customers and our shareholders, but I think it's possible.
Continuous improvement, that's what Frank also talks about very often. You will become the chair of Nordea as of October. How do you feel about that?
I'm excited. It's a privilege. This is a very important bank for the people of the Nordics. It's a very important bank on any scale. It's one that many people admire. I feel honored to have been entrusted with the job. I have a fantastic management team. My job is to maybe keep out of the way and let them keep doing their stuff. Of course, Torbjörn, as my predecessor and my boss for the next six months, has done a fabulous job as Chair. If I can just simply keep the show on the road, I will be happy, provided the destination is to win.
Sounds really good. Thank you, Stephen, for taking the time for this interview. I'm sure our audience really appreciated it and the opportunity to meet you here today.
Thank you.
Thank you, all participants, for your questions. If you have further questions, please reach out to our investor relations team, who will be happy to support you. Their contact details should be visible for you now on the screens. You can also find them on our website, nordea.com, under the investor tab. It's now time to conclude this event. A warm thank you to everyone for attending. Torbjörn, I will give the last word to you.
Which is also a big thank you from me to all participants, shareholders, and others alike. I trust we have been able to give you some information today, and I hope to see you next year again at Nordea's AGM, whatever the format is appropriate then. Thank you.