Effective from 2 May 2018, Danske Bank changes its organisation. Personal Banking and Business Banking, which currently operate as separate business units, are merged into country organisations within two new units; Banking DK and Banking Nordic (Norway, Sweden and Finland). The Wealth Management and Corporates & Institutions (C&I) business units maintain their global organisations. In order to strengthen our business development activities, we will gather all development capabilities in a new unit called Group Development. Danske Bank will expand its Executive Board by four members, as Henriette Fenger Ellekrog (Group HR), Jakob Groot (C&I), Frederik Gjessing Vinten (Group Development) and Christian Baltzer (CFO area) are appointed Executive Board members. Christian Baltzer will take up his position on 15 October 2018.
The purpose of the organisational change is to keep up our progress by moving closer to our customers and strengthen our business development activities:
“Our current organisational structure has supported the progress we have experienced in most areas in the past years. We now change our organisation and move even closer to our customers in the retail banking units. We also strengthen our business development activities to maintain a high pace in terms of innovation and will focus on integrating services from other market players into our customer offerings. With the new organisation, we raise our ambitions because we want to be able to continue to meet our customers’ increased expectations and keep up our efforts to become an even more simple and efficient bank,” says Chief Executive Officer, Thomas F. Borgen.
Read more in the attached organisational chart.
The changes in detail:
Retail banking units are merged into country organisations
Establishing country organisations means that decisions will be made even closer to our customers. The purpose is also that customers should experience Danske Bank as one bank and get relevant services regardless of whether they bank with us as business or personal customers.
Banking DK will be headed by Jesper Nielsen. Jesper Nielsen is currently Head of Personal Banking. Banking Nordic (Norway, Sweden and Finland) will be headed by Glenn Söderholm, who is currently Head of C&I. At the same time, we will appoint country heads for these three markets. Trond Mellingsæter and Berit Behring are appointed country heads of Norway and Sweden, respectively. We have started the process of recruiting a new country head of Finland, as Risto Tornivaara will retire as planned.
New unit to coordinate development activities
We are also introducing a new business unit, Group Development, whose purpose is to strengthen our development activities across the Group, including Group strategy, product development, partnerships and marketing. Frederik Gjessing Vinten, who is currently Head of Group Strategy, is appointed head of the new unit and member of the Executive Board.
Global structure for C&I and Wealth Management maintained
C&I, which among other includes Corporate Banking, FICC, Capital Markets and Institutional Banking, and Wealth Management, which comprises Danica Pension, Danske Capital and Private Banking, will maintain their current global organisations.
Jakob Groot, who is currently Global Head of FICC, is appointed Head of C&I and member of the Executive Board.
At the same time, the current CFO, Jacob Aarup-Andersen, is appointed Head of Wealth Management. Jacob Aarup-Andersen replaces Tonny Thierry Andersen, who has decided to leave Danske Bank after being employed since 1999. For many years, Tonny Thierry Andersen has played a part in the development of Danske Bank and has made a significant contribution in a number of management positions, such as CFO and as a member of the Executive Board since 2006.
CFO area
As Jacob Aarup-Andersen is appointed new Head of Wealth Management, Christian Baltzer will be appointed new CFO. Christian Baltzer comes from a position as Group CFO at Danish insurance provider Tryg and will join Danske Bank on 15 October 2018.
Until Christian Baltzer joins the Executive Board, Morten Mosegaard, who is currently Head of Group Finance, will act as the interim head of the CFO area.
Group HR
As a consequence of the strategic importance of HR, Henriette Fenger Ellekrog, who is currently Head of Group HR, is appointed member of the Executive Board.
Carsten Rasch Egeriis and Jim Ditmore continue on the Executive Board, and their roles are unchanged.
Changes to the financial reporting
The financial reporting will be aligned with the new organisational structure. The interim report for the first six months of 2018 will show pro forma figures, whereas the interim report for the first nine months of 2018 will reflect the new structure.
Effective on 2 May 2018, the Executive Board will consist of:
Thomas F. Borgen, Chief Executive Officer Carsten Rasch Egeriis, member of the Executive Board and Head of Group Risk Management Frederik Gjessing Vinten, member of the Executive Board and Head of Group Development (new member) Glenn Söderholm, member of the Executive Board and Head of Banking Nordic Henriette Fenger Ellekrog, member of the Executive Board and Head of Group HR (new member) Jacob Aarup-Andersen, member of the Executive Board and Head of Wealth Management Jakob Groot, member of the Executive Board and Head of Corporates & Institutions (new member) Jesper Nielsen, member of the Executive Board and Head of Banking DK Jim Ditmore, member of the Executive Board and Head of Group Services & Group IT (COO)
Christian Baltzer will join the Executive Board on 15 October 2018.
Organisational chart
CV
Danske Bank A/S
Contacts: Tim Smidemann, press adviser, tel. +45 45 14 14 00