– Well-functioning competition is crucial for Norwegian bank customers to pay the lowest possible interest rate on their mortgages. It is therefore necessary to carry out further analyzes of how Nordea’s purchase of Danske Bank will affect competition in the banking market, says competition director Tina Søreide.
At the beginning of June, Danske Bank announced that it wanted to withdraw from the Norwegian private market and focus more on strengthening its role as a commercial bank for companies and large customers.
In July, Nordea then announced that they were buying the private customer business.
New assessment in January
The Competition Authority’s deadline for coming up with a new assessment of the case is 12 January.
The Norwegian Competition Authority is particularly concerned about the mortgage market. They believe that the banks can coordinate their behavior in the market to a greater extent with fewer players.
The takeover was expected this summer to give Nordea a market share on the Norwegian mortgage market of around 16 per cent, compared to 11 per cent today. The organization Huseierne stated in July that they were very skeptical of the merger.
– Banking competition in Norway is under pressure. The fact that Nordea is now buying up Danske Bank’s private customer business further weakens the competition. The acquisition must therefore be stopped, said general secretary Morten Andreas Meyer to NTB at the time.
285,000 customers
The Consumer Council was not as concerned.
– It’s about the fact that we have some banks that are interested in taking market shares, we can call them challenger banks. As long as the bank that is acquired is not the one that is pushing hard on the competition, we cannot be as concerned as the Homeowners, said director Jorge Jensen at the Consumer Council.
Danske Bank’s private customer portfolio comprises around 285,000 customers, lending and deposit volumes of 18 billion and 4 billion euros respectively and assets under management of around 2 billion euros.
– It is Danske Bank’s assessment that the transaction does not give rise to competitive challenges, and Danske Bank undertakes to make the transition as smooth as possible for both customers and employees, the bank writes in a press release.
They add that the transaction is expected to be completed by the end of 2024.
2023-11-07 07:01:23
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