Scan Magazine

By Signe Hansen | Photos: Christos Koukelis

The Danske Bank office in London City

Solving the financial crisis and taking over the global banking industry are not on the list of Anders Wulff Larsens’s things to do this year. The Head of ICB (International Corporate Banking) in Danske Bank’s London office is more modest and far more unambiguous. He wants to continue doing what he and his unit do best: niche banking for corporate, Scandinavian group customers.

When Scan Magazine met Anders on the fourth floor of the bank’s London office in King William Street, we were not met with a lot of show or airy plans but with a very concrete statement. “It’s business as usual here – or at least as close as we can come.”

Following the customer

As Danske Bank has been servicing group customers in London since 1983, Anders does have substantial weight behind his words. The UK ICB unit is one of 12 similar units, which besides the four Scandinavian countries include Poland, Germany, Russia, Ireland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

The location of new units abroad is dictated by the requirements of the Scandinavian group customers and that is why, explains Anders, the London unit is at the very core of Danske Bank’s business. “The bank’s policy has always been to follow its customers on the markets and that’s how it all started. Over the years we have perfected our original services to our corporate core customers on their core markets.”

Scandinavian service for Scandinavian customers

The UK is Norway’s largest export market, Denmark and Sweden’s third largest, and Finland’s fourth largest. Consequently, it provides very viable terms for a bank which, like Danske bank, offers specific services for subsidiaries of Scandinavian corporations. “Over the years we have grown and taken market share, especially from UK banks. The main reason is that we deliver a Scandinavian service and Scandinavian products and both from a group’s perspective and a subsidiary’s perspective, we often constitute a better solution than UK banks,” says Anders.

Head of Corporate Banking in Danske Bank, Søren Haugaard, stresses that the service which Danske Bank can provide abroad is not only essential to the customers but to the bank as well. “Anders’s job is to ensure that we catch up on the business that our group customers  have here in the UK as well as their local business,” he says adding: “The more facets we have to accommodate our customers’ collective requirements, the better is our potential of running a profitable business. I see our business like a big puzzle with many pieces; it won’t be finished without all the pieces and London is a very important piece to our corporate customers.”

One of the special services the bank offers all customers is a web-based cash management system which provides a cross-boarder solution. “It gives our customers the opportunity to operate cash management online through the same system in all of the countries we are represented in, which is a unique service. It gives a huge advantage for group companies in that they can optimize their cash flow.”

But what about the crisis?

Of course when it comes to banking, one has to ask about the crisis. Is Anders worried that there is an increased risk in the Bank’s customer base? He is definitely not afraid to admit that banks are struggling at the moment but stresses that the crisis has never brought Danske Bank or the London unit into a life threatening situation. “Of course our customers have been affected by the international credit crisis too, but our strategy has not changed as such. We have always had the tools and the ability to handle the risk in our customer portfolio, and we work closely within the Bank to access the risk in our portfolio. That is pretty usual for what we normally do; we identify changes and problems that the customers will experience and work to solve them.”

With regard to the bank’s own way of handling the crisis the answer is to do just that says Anders: provide the best service and assistance for the bank’s customers. “We are a niche bank in the UK and we will focus on what we are good at and that is servicing a limited client group. We focus on our existing good clients and we are here for them whether they are world brands or not. We are not here to solve the banking crisis.”