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Of all the countries in which Nordea has operations, Germany is the country where the Group has the smallest number of employees. The German head office is located in the banking metropolis of Frankfurt and has only 37 employees. One of them is Jörg Hastrich.
"Earlier, we also had small units in Berlin and Hamburg but these have been phased out. On the other hand, we are growing in Frankfurt instead," he says.
Jörg has been at the bank for six years. He began at what was then Unibank, which later became a part of Nordea.
"We were in a rather privileged position. Unibank was the only other party to the merger. Germany is a major trading partner for all the Nordic countries and many people saw this as a chance to offer something to German corporate customers. Many Swedish companies also have operations in Germany today," says Jörg.
Previously, he has also worked for Svenska Handelsbanken and Dresdner Bank. He sees working for a small Nordic bank as an advantage. "In a small company you get a greater degree of responsibility and Nordic banks are less hierarchical. There is an open dialogue to an extent that is hardly permitted in a German bank. There it is the management that decides, and there is very little scope for discussion."
Jörg has not really made up his mind about the advantages and disadvantages of the formation of a European Company as yet. He volunteered to attend the NFU seminar in order to learn more about the issue and so that he could subsequently inform his colleagues. "We will largely be left on the sidelines in this process. It's not realistic to expect that our little office will have any real impact on the results of the project, but it's still interesting to try to follow what's happening."
There are trade unions for bank employees in Germany, but there is no local trade union at Nordea, nor does Jörg know whether any of the employees are members of a trade union. "At our small unit there is no great need for a trade union. If you compare our situation with the way things are on the rest of the German banking market then there are good reasons for working for Nordea," he says.
Bengt Rolfer
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