Banks, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Legislation

They said that DNB and Nordea had received unconditional clearance from the European Commission to combine their operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

"The European Commission approved unconditionally the creation of a joint venture between Nordea Bank and DNB Bank in the Baltic states. The Commission assessed the possible competitive effects of the merger on a number of distinct retail and corporate banking markets across the three Baltic countries and concluded that the merger would not raise competition concerns," the banks said in a press release.

The European Commission said it had concluded "that the proposed merger would raise no competition concerns in view of the strong competition that the Luminor Group will face post-transaction, notably from SEB bank and Swedbank, and the fact that DNB and Nordea are not considered to be particularly close competitors in the countries concerned by the transaction".

The transaction will not affect customer service and business will continue as usual. The customers of the current Nordea and DNB banks will receive timely information and additional updates prior the business transfer.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2017. After the successful closing of the transaction, a new bank and financial services provider will be established in the Baltic region: Luminor.

In terms of assets at the end of June 2017, the Latvian branch of Nordea Bank was the fourth largest bank in Latvia and DNB Banka ranked seventh, according to the data of the Latvian Association of Commercial Banks.