Job cuts at Nordea Securities to have minimal derivatives impact

Nordea's decision to slash nearly 20% of its Nordea Securities investment banking workforce should have only a limited impact on the Nordic bank’s derivatives business, it announced yesterday.

Nordea is shaking up its operations under the stewardship of Lars Nordström, who was named group chief executive on August 26. Its Nordea Securities unit will lose 100 of its 560 staff due to tough market conditions in investment banking, the bank said. While the cuts were described as “across-the-board”, most jobs will go in corporate finance and equities, said a Nordea spokesman.

The bank, which reorganised and centralised its asset management unit in Copenhagen on August 28, said it would maintain a country-specific focus for investment banking. Nordea Securities has offices in Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Helsinki, London and New York. The investment banking unit is now run by Frans Lindelöw, who moved to Nordea in late August, having previously worked as head of European equities at HSBC.