Swedish bank Nordea moves HQ to Finland where rules are easier

Stockholm

A EUROPEAN banking giant just snubbed one of the world's strictest financial supervisors by moving to a more accommodating regulatory setting.

Nordea Bank AB's decision to relocate its headquarters from Sweden to Finland puts the Nordic region's only global systemically important bank inside the eurozone. After months of railing against Swedish efforts to make banks pay more to protect taxpayers, Nordea estimated that its decision to go to Helsinki will save it as much as US$1.3 billion in regulatory costs.