Through a relentless commitment to the personal customer segment and its emphasis on flexibility, digitalisation and 24/7 accessibility, BankNordik aims to offer what personal customers want from a modern bank today.
The bank’s focus is on maintaining close relations with personal customers in the banking market of the future, and its ambition is to be best in class. “The personal banking market is evolving, and customers are increasingly demanding flexible digital solutions. To meet that demand, we will invest in online solutions that make a difference, while also ensuring that our staff and the advice they provide connect with our digital universe. Through our new initiatives, we can meet our customers on their own terms, while also laying the groundwork for attracting new customers,” said BankNordik CEO Árni Ellefsen
Reorganisation – concentrating skills at fewer locations
BankNordik announces certain adjustments to its business with a view to optimising selected internal processes and improving its ability to meet customer requests in the future banking landscape.
It is a well-known fact that customer demand for physical transactions has declined considerably in recent years. BankNordik is responding to this change in demand by strengthening its branch network skills through a consolidation of it branches in Jutland into four personal banking centres located in Aarhus, Kolding, Esbjerg and Haderslev. Supported by these changes, the bank expects to engage even more strongly with its customers in future.
With a view to optimising internal processes and achieving synergies between its national markets, BankNordik will also move all branch support to the Faroe Islands over the next six to eight months. This move will mean the closure of BankNordik’s branch support unit in Copenhagen, but also that 15 new branch support positions will be created in the Faroe Islands. Also, the Finance department will be gathered in the Faroes, while International Markets Operations will be based in Copenhagen.
Overall, the reorganisation will involve 22 redundancies, primarily in non-customer-faced positions. On the other hand, BankNordik will upsize both its personal customer business in all three countries and the branch support unit in the Faroe Islands to the effect that the bank will have a slightly higher staff number than today when the process is complete.
“It’s always regrettable to have to say goodbye to skilled and trusted employees, and it’s a situation that leaves no one unaffected. For those of our employees to whom we cannot offer another position with the bank, we will obviously do everything we can to help them move on in their careers,” said Árni Ellefsen.
BankNordik retains its full-year guidance for 2015 and expects to generate profit before impairment charges, non-recurring items, value adjustments and tax of DKK 200-220 million. Net impairment charges for the year are expected not to exceed DKK 20 million.
As previously announced, BankNordik is winding up its Danish corporate banking activities in a controlled process. In the Faroes and in Greenland, corporate banking will not be affected by this process and will remain a core business area for BankNordik going forward.
Winding up the Danish corporate banking activities is expected to enable BankNordik to pay an extraordinary dividend of up to DKK 200 million. The bank expects that two thirds of the Danish corporate banking activities will be wound up during the first half of 2016.
When the previously announced conditional sale of the Icelandic insurance operations has been completed, BankNordik expects to be able to pay a further dividend of not less than DKK 100 million. The conditional sale of the Icelandic insurance operations is expected to receive regulatory approval in the first half of 2016.
For more information, please call
Árni Ellefsen, CEO, tel. (+298) 230 348
BankNordik has banking activities in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands and insurance activities in the Faroe Islands and Iceland. Founded in the Faroe Islands more than a century ago, the Group has 170,000 customers, total assets of DKK 16bn and about 480 employees. The Bank is subject to the supervision of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority and is listed on Nasdaq Iceland and Nasdaq Copenhagen. www.banknordik.com
Disclaimer. This company announcement contains certain forward-looking statements. Any statements other than statements of historical fact, including without limitation those regarding BankNordik’s financial condition, future operating performance, business strategy, management plans and objectives for future operational prospects for the group are forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and performance to differ materially from any expected future results or performance, express or implied, by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause forward-looking statements to differ materially from actual results include, among other things, general economic and business factors, competition, and interest rate and currency fluctuations. These statements should not be considered as a representation that anticipated events will occur or that expected objectives will be achieved. The information presented herein speaks only as of today’s date and BankNordik assumes no responsibility to update any of the forward-looking statements contained herein.