BankNordik P/F - Company Announcement

BankNordik accelerating focus on personal customers and realising cross-border synergies

In line with its previously announced strategy, BankNordik is accelerating its
focus on the personal banking market in Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe
Islands. The process will also involve reorganising to optimise internal
processes and moving selected activities to fewer locations. 

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.