Nordea Bank AB, the largest bank in the Nordic region by market value, on Monday joined a growing list of big banks that are cutting jobs to help maintain profitability in the face of rising costs from new bank regulations.
The Swedish bank, which employs about 34,000 people, has launched talks with unions in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland to cut around 2,000 jobs, or about 5.9% of its work force, over the next year and a half.
Nordea estimates it will reduce staff by between 500 and 650 in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, while it expects to reduce its staff in Norway by between 200 and 300 employees.
Nordea said new global requirements for capital and liquidity mean it needs to be more cost-efficient in order to increase its return on equity.
It is targeting a return on equity of around 15% compared with 11.7% in the first half of 2011.
