Nordea views Poland, as well as Lithuania, as its home market. However, representatives of the group have so far made no comments about the decision on Poland. They also keep silent on the strategy, which the group will pursue in other countries, the web portal eversus.lt reports.
Sources tell the portal that the talks on Nordea’s Polish business have been under way for some time and the latest media report has stirred turmoil among employees. According to the sources, the group plans to exit from Poland since it has failed to obtain the desired market share.
“Nordea has been cutting its costs in all possible ways for some time. Therefore there is no point for it to make investments now in Poland, which has very strong local banks. Moreover, there are no guarantees that those investments might pay off some day in the future,” sources tell eversus.lt.
Nordea Bank Lietuva, the Lithuanian unit of Nordea, has closed down around 10 outlets since 2011 and reduced its workforce by around 10 percent in the past year. The bank’s chief corporate banking officer has resigned and the bank has not started searching for a replacement.
“We have streamlined the bank’s activities well enough, so we do not plan to close any more outlets or dismiss more employees this year. We would reconsider this issue if conditions on the market changed drastically, yet we to not envisage any potential threats today,” Vaidotas Cucėnas, communications head at Nordea Bank Lietuva, told eversus.lt.
Financial analysts say that the changes implemented by Nordea in Lithuania show that this credit institution is turning into a niche bank which will seek to deal only with profitable corporate customers.
The news agency Reuters has reported that the bank would dismiss 800 more employees by the end of 2015 bringing the total number of those laid off from mid-2011 to 2,700.
