 So I don't think it not so many years ago It would have been unlikely that a Norwegian was heading up the biggest bank in in Denmark But then again, maybe it does take a non-Dane to get the Danes Bank up on its feet again No, not a day He had been in Denmark group when he was appointed the CEO last year. He had been there for 16 years So now, please help me welcome Thomas Bowen when he here will share his thoughts on strategy leadership and culture in order to fight For the position of getting Danes Bank up in the leading Nordic banking group again. Please welcome Thomas Bowen Thanks Nina Yeah, the world is changing isn't it when you have an Norwegian standing up here Thank you very much for inviting me. It's a great pleasure To be allowed to talk to you and with you I'm being told that I have about 30 minutes to do my introductory remarks and then we'll have a dialogue Dialogue about how you think we should develop Danske going forward Just speaking to you Generation Y Is a challenge You are impatient You are clever Your team oriented You are extremely agile and very impatient you are spoiled and Very clever. I had the pleasure this morning to meet six of your colleagues in kind of a session Where they have written Some SS about danske. I was deeply impressed by the insight and knowledge of How they identified all the issue about danske The good thing was we also had in the identified some of the issues But one thing is to identify the issues Another thing is to get it changed and it's all about execution What is danske? danske. Yes, it's an institution with head office in Denmark But we are in 15 countries We have approximately 19,000 employees We have a balance sheet twice the size of the Danish GDP and we Have everything from personal banking to investment banking including insurance and asset management We are pretty complex. We're pretty big We have a history and we have a future And I hope many of you would like us to join us for the future because we need generation why You to help us on that transition When we talk about the future, I Think we need to find a balance That the future starts today or tomorrow When we as leaders and me as CEO I Need to do a change every day We need to deliver quarter-on-quarter, but at the same time we need to predict and plan in the longer term perspective Because if you miss one or the other You will be sure you will get out of your office quickly But one thing you need to make sure if you take short-term actions We should good for the long run Which can be seen as negative on your P&L you to make sure that you explain the story Don't scare has doubled its results Quarter or sorry from 2013 to 2014 We can have improved the results even more But then we would have had to cut investments Because I don't want to cut investments because that will undermine our long-term strategy That's why it's important to tell the stakeholders on which journey are you on and why do you need to be patient? Short-term to make sure that we are long-term sustainable investment case So that's one of the challenges you will face that we need to change the short-term But prepare for the future What I will try to go through now is Some of the things which I see as a fact what's impacted us What it impacts done skin and some of the responses We are trying to take as a consequence of these changes first of all The future unfolds with greater power than ever You guys recognize this This is more slow The engineer at Intel in the 1960s who said that computer power with double every 18 months Two became four four become eight eight became 16 and somewhat And he's right The point is that it starts very small and then it explodes Because when thousand you do a thousand times You start to have the real effects and that's exactly what we see now Not only in computer technology or computer Computation we see it in artificial intelligence We see it in robotics We see it in nanotechnology We see in biology We see it Extremely well when you combine some of these what we call morse law or digital exponential Sciences think about Google cars We all have heard about Google cars But did you know that four weeks ago? it is now legally on License placed in California to Register drive less cars drive less cars So you can go down to LA Go into a shop and buy a car Put it on the street and sit in the passenger seat. I'll let the car drive you around legally You can do it in Nevada You can be in Florida This is in 2014 Remember in 2002 Some thought that he was Exceptional then you can have a metro train in Copenhagen To drive driverless It tells about what is happening think about another example about biology Scientists are now experimenting how you can extend life They have not been able to extend life three times the normal capacity of Their things to test on think what could happen to human being if we take it back To our world the changes are also going much faster. It took This company Facebook, which you all know eight years to become a billion-dollar company. It took group on 15 months to palm a billion-dollar company It took Kodak two years to grow from greatness to bust It took blockbuster 18 months to grow for greatness to bust So the changes are happening faster than ever and in bigger power than ever I Would like to go through some of the things which I think will impact the financial sector and This is a financial sector, which will be represented by danska a bank which was established in 1871 with deep roots in the Danish society with a deep heritage Which is going to move into the future Industry which have been perceived Brightly wrongly as conservative. How do we adapt? To a world which are changing so dramatically The first thing was impact the financial sector quite dramatically is The macroeconomic developments going through the world first of all, we are seeing a movement from East from west to east More and more Economic power are going in Asia away from Europe and More and more are going from the north to the south to the African countries Europe are in stagnation How do we as an institution respond to that? When our corporate clients also see that trend and move in their production Outside or the customer base outside. We need to move with the clients and support the clients So we need to make sure that we can support our clients in Asia Being in India or China or other places We need to move with but how do we also adjust the business model in a low growth environment? And when you move abroad make sure that you know, where is your competitive advantage? Because when we move to China, we will be bank number 3458 So again, what's the value proposition we give our clients? Secondly Globalization will continue It started with the book from Friedman, which I'm sure you all read about Globalization it will just continue because the technology our internationalization is just inspiring inspiring that but we also see some What I call some power is going the other way some sort of protection or Balkanization think about the whole discussion about UK into Europe a Part of EU or think about Scotland as a part of UK Just example So you have these powers where we are a part of some more globalization, but we also see some nationalism or Balkanization and That's what the politicians are struggling about and how do we as business leader adapt to that? Because what could be the negative consequence is also that you have national regulation and not global regulation and Finally gear politically the world actually is becoming a more peaceful place, but we have pockets of unrest If it's Syria Russia Ukraine, whatever How do we as business leader make sure that we have a diversified business model that we are not overly Exposed to one of these areas or the consequence on the global scale if one area is out of sync That's how we need leaders need to adjust Thirdly regulation There is a tsunami of regulation coming through the financial sector But it's also another part which is more challenging is that regulation are able to adapt to the new technological possibilities, which has given to the financial sector and How do regulators when they want to regulate the traditional banks of financial institutions? regulate what we call shadow banking and Shadow banking is basically that other institutions are taking the roles of the traditional banks We need to use it proactively So how can we regulation as a strength, but also be aware of the weaknesses of What regulation can do to you? Fourthly We are getting older unless you are turkey the population is getting younger actually What is the consequences of your business model as we have an aging population? What's the consequences of your workforce when you have an aging population? What's the consequences of urbanization the more more people would like to live in the cities? How do we adjust? It's easy to see the facts You could see some impact, but how do you react in your business model as a consequence? And how do we make sure that we can adjust that? Historically banks has also been Some sort of authority you can trust the banks That has been lost. How do you regain that trust? That's also the issue with politicians. How do politicians regain trust? The one you trust now is basically your peers your colleagues or your family The old notion about who is the authority has changed We need to regain that and I will tell you more about how we think we're going to regain that Technology, dramatic Look at those curves Look at e-banking The curve from 2006 to 2014 a nice slow curve Look at a mobile when we introduced it in 2009 Pretty steep curve Look at mobile pay in 15 months We have 1.7 million users And we told there is no other app who's been more successful any place in the world In relative to the number of inhabitants Why did it succeed and why so good? One, the technology made it possible Two, it was designed in easy use, friendly use And thirdly, the consumers were ready So everything was at the breaking point at the same time And when all things goes together then it explodes That's why Huber, the taxi company also are exploding as an example Everything are at the right time So what you need to find is when is the inflection points What is difficult when you have exponential laws Is that the movements you see from 2 to 48 are very small You can hardly identify it So we have a tendency to underestimate the long term but overestimate the short term Except when you are at the inflicting point like mobile pay Here we underestimated it completely We thought at best we may have 300,000 customers on it That also tells it's hard to predict what will actually hit We have new players It doesn't go a day that we don't hear about new entrances into the field If it's Google, PayPal or Starbucks What they are using is new technology and a new interface with their customers The question is how do we respond to that And where do we use their skills, their agility and customer friendliness To adjust our business model And how do we make sure that we recruit the right people And where do we accept to do joint cooperation Think about Apple Apple has a hardware device But what they basically have done is to make an ecosystem Where the main profit pool is everyone who chips into selling their products through their interface If it's music or products or whatever it is So they have made the natural interface and trying to find where can they create value We are at the same space now where do we co-create or join forces with other institutions We are testing it out for example in a coffee shop in Copenhagen It's self-service coffee shop You order your coffee, probably something you've done it on your mobile And guess what? The way you pay it is through your mobile pay It takes 30 seconds for you to order it and you pay it And it's rated 10 out of 10 That's how how can we combine joint forces Secondly, how do we make sure that we join our forces with our customers Using mobile pay to create value for them Some of you have probably read about how many what is called failure in payment goes when you are online You fill your basket when you do your shopping And then you go to your payment site on the same homepage Between 5 and 40% of sales fail at the payment point Either because your car doesn't work, the system is down or it's too complicated We are now testing out with 10 online companies where we are using mobile pay The failure rate for those companies who at approximately 20% are going from 20% to 10% Think about what it means for a shop or the online sales When you can increase your top line by 10% by just using a new technological device That's when you do co-creation and value creation for your customers How do we respond to this changing environment The world is changing. I don't believe in long term strategic planning I think those days have far gone What I think we need to do and what we are spending quite a lot of time on is building scenarios What could what can happen and if this happened what do we do For example mobile pay, our base scenario was we will be able to get 300,000 customers But we also had two other scenarios if we go no clients or if we get 2 million Because then you need to adjust and adapt much faster So scenario building is something very different today than it was previously Because then you know more had a strategic plan we should track and follow quite fixed and to the point Secondly because the world is changing I think you need to be fairly right in your strategy So when I speak to my colleagues, my employees, I think we should go in this direction But if I feel that that direction is not the right one because the world is changing we need to adjust Because if you're fairly right and that's going to left to right you can maneuver in between But if you should go left and you go right then it's difficult But if you decide to go left which is fairly right based on your good analysis and scenario you need to execute I have probably seen 20,000 power points I probably read more books than you That hasn't changed the world with all respect all the professors there What changes it if you execute? You need to execute But if you execute on the wrong strategy then you're in trouble But execution is the fine art and to quote Jack Wells he said basically it's all about execution Because the world is dynamic it's unpredictable It comes fast with great power leadership is important I believe that you need to empower people as much as possible delegate authority as close to where the action is as possible That's a big change for danska and the financial sector and role who has been brought up and taught to have central decisions But get the decision out and let people take their own decisions based on the skill set the competence and experience But when you do that and you have more empowerment and a fairly right strategy you need to make sure that you base your decisions on some values That's what I call value based leadership Core values is not unique any company C20 company whatever has core values What differentiates certain C20 companies is their ability to use those core values in today-to-day running of the operation And the core values is just a tool to change the culture But core values and the change of core values is important in the transformation Danska Bank has had core values since 1871 They were changed slightly and the core values we had until four, one month ago had been the same for 20 years To be able to respect history but to adjust to the future We said we take three of the old values from the five ones into the future But we redefined them and then we take new two values to a more relevant in the present environment That's what it's called is value based leadership When you use core values I'm not going to go through them now And you have more empowerment less let's call it business or is You also need not to buy naive you need to have clear governance An institution like ours who is a big risk organization I just explained to you that we have a size twice the Danish GDP We make sure that everybody knows what they do but at a very high level So you have a governance and within the governance you get freedom and empowerment and core values And this is what we are in Danska today A cultural journey to transform a fine institution who was established in 1871 We should be in a part of building the Danish society You now become a global institution at least in Nordics and in the European scene But adjusting to all the forces we're seeing taking impact on us On those seven I went through That's a fantastic journey we went through but it's going to be challenging So we need to regain the trust We need to adjust for the future And we need to take care of the old notion of Danske who's also been about expertise and value creation Because if you get this right and I know question we aren't we are going to get this right We will be unbeatable Then we can defend off all those who's trying to take a piece of our business Because we will be agile enough We make sure that our 18,000 people with deep knowledge will use the expertise in front of the clients We make sure that we create value for our customers And if you create value for your customers You are at the fun place to work Then you create value for the shareholders And if you create value for your shareholders, employees and customers You get the respect of the society And then you need to keep your agility to constantly adjust I was hearing just when I came in the last discussion of the fine panel was up here And one of them mentioned agility to able to adjust And that's also why we need to recruit a lot of new people with the competence, the impatience and agility To come into the organization and help us to build a bank for the future Thank you very much Great, thank you very much Thomas So before getting to the pigeonhole system I just wanted to say that I will be taking questions Thomas will be taking questions from the audience The old fashioned manner as well by raising your hand and the microphone will go around But I will do it so that at some point I will say in about 20 minutes I will say alright this is it This is now that you ask questions among the audience and then we go back to the pigeonhole So if you have a question you would like to ask just please hold it until I open up for questions from the crowd in here Because otherwise it's going to mess up the voting system So that's how we're going to do it Thomas the first thing I would like to ask you is because a former colleague of mine from the Danish Broadcasting Corporation Got this new job promoting something called SWIP I don't know if you noticed the national campaign going on The SWIP campaign, no? No So if I ask you, no, what's that? I haven't figured it out either by watching it though So if I ask you what you think of it, you have no idea? No, I have a strong view on it We at Dansk had tried campaigns before Big campaigns, it doesn't work What you have to deliver is a good customer experience If SWIP is a good customer experience, it will have a success If it's not a good customer experience, it will not succeed I don't know, but they're not going to succeed by advertising So it's bad, is the product good enough? I don't know But what I can say is we have spent zero krona on advertising on mobile pay It's 1.7 million users It's about getting that right It may be supported at the latest stage of some sort of support in marketing But that's not going to change the world It's the experience the client says But there is some kind of battlefield going on out there I think that's pretty obvious to everyone And there's also a question related to it And we're going to get that one up here I just need to get this one working as well Here we go And that question comes from the audience with 33 votes And so SWIP has launched an aggressive strategy to compete against mobile pay How are you going to deal with this? And also with the future competition from, for instance, Apple Pay And a lot of other services that we don't even know the name of right now No, I think it's a super question And we are, of course, discussing this constantly Where do we fit in the value chain? I think this is an era which is in constant development Particularly the payment area We need to find where can we compete and who do we... Sorry for the expression, go to bed with Because if you go to bed with somebody You need to wake up with them this next morning, usually do at least So who do we make sure that we team up with if we think that's the right? But what we can see is that mobile pay is working Now we have 1.7 million consumers using it What we do now is letting the consumers from going to... Consumer to consumer, from consumer to business Or from consumer on the net So it's a constantly development I'm sure Apple will do something more Maybe not in Denmark for the next 12 months Facebook will probably do something They're all to the benefit of the consumers We just need to make sure that we can play that game And be one step ahead And when we don't think we can be one step ahead Where do we at that value? So this is exactly what we're struggling with But to be able to do that We have recruited a lot of people who are not trade as bankers They are like you guys Without the tie and stuff like that And we take them out And put them in actually symbolically In a closed down branch To think out of the box Or what we say out of the building To have the same thinking as you do in Silicon Valley Because if you go too much into the old banking world You can be pulled back by all the rules The regulation, the conservativeness So that's how we break it up into small agile departments And just mobile pay by itself I think that consists of 50 or 60 people Just working on that Because they need to be on top of it And the rest of us need to concentrate on something else And that's how we do this To try to respond I think we have a great thing We launch it at Finland With great success So this is something But we are humble But you talk about agility And quick reaction and things like that And do you see a Daneske Bank Group As quick enough to respond Are you an agile organization As you see it today? No We are not But we're working on it And I think we're much more agile today That we were 12 months ago And we're more agile 12 months ago That's a constant thing we need to work on But you need to empower people And you need to give the one you empower The tools to be able to take that empowerment So one thing is to give it But somebody needs to take it And you need to be able To create a culture where people strive And want to be creative and challenged That's why I was so inspired By meeting six of your colleagues today They really challenged Some of the ideas we have And not only think out of the box But out of the building This is how we do it And also as Fleming and I discussed It's also ready to take mistakes We can do the same mistake maybe once Or twice I don't think that's too often But we allow mistakes So it's a lot of these things We come a long way But now we talk a lot about mobile pay And Apple pay Let's talk about the new funny Currencies like Bitcoin and things like that And other weird places that competition Might come from This question here Do you see cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin As a threat to the established financial Sexual rather than opportunity And I'd like to add to the question Where do you see the coming competition Coming from? Yeah, I think it's a difficult question In the sense that These new payments Values being Bitcoin Bitcoin is actually just one of about 30 Various cryptocurrencies What is it called? Cryptocurrencies I can't even pronounce it It's a consequence Of an inefficient payment system And that's also been noticed By the US Fed That this is a tendency Because things are not moving smooth less I think that The future will develop Some sort of new currencies But I don't think it will go on in this fashion Because it's Uncontrollable And it's difficult Particularly for regulators Central banks and other To know what is really happening If it becomes too big The regulators, national banks Central banks will take an interest in it We as a bank Are taking a slight back seat on this now Because there's so many other things we are prioritizing And there's so much volatility And uncertainty is these currencies For the time being, we will not be the lead on this one Because if we embrace it And it goes wrong, the bad about recreating Credibility and trust Can be actually taken down So we see something could happen We have some people looking at it But we're not taking the lead for it And then again But where do you see, we talk about Swift, you don't see that as a competitor I understand your answer No, I didn't say that Seriously, what I say If they have a good value proposition They will succeed, but they will not succeed If they only try marketing, that was my point But when you discuss competitors Among the top management Where do you talk about the competition That's coming from I'm just trying to find the question Where do you talk about players That are not traditionally in the financial market Absolutely I think Or you don't know them yet Some of them we can see already I mentioned a couple of them Who's entering our traditional payment area You know, Starbucks in the States I think they are the seventh biggest Depositor in the US Because they have these prepaid cards And they have a payment system So if Starbucks comes to them With that kind of prepaid card Maybe they will be a competitor But our response is We probably have the same payment system But at the same time We have something called competence Because I don't believe you go to Starbucks To have one million shares in something You probably do that at Danske That's why we need to combine the technology With the competence and trustworthiness Do you also trust that in the future People will need to go down To talk to their bank advisor In order to buy some stocks somewhere Or will they get that info On Facebook that they trust Or they will follow a special portfolio manager In some, I don't know, sexo-bank environment So they don't need you for that Absolutely But I think we're going to have Some who would like to speak to an advisor Either physically in a branch Or through a webcast Or on the phone or through the web Or they will just be like guided self By an algorithm which tells them On your behavior you should do A, B or C Or they just what we call self-contained They do their own training I think it's going to have multi-faceted So it's not one way But as technology Makes it more and more possible To be self-contained In your decisions With algorithms guiding your behavior I'm sure this will take off And we need to respond to that But I don't think it's either or I think it's both But the traditional branches Are of course playing a much less prominent Space than history Historically So let's talk a bit about leadership Because many of you ask questions To the way you lead Thomas And also you got the job last summer And yes, after a very turbulent time For Danske Bank And one of the questions here Is how does one actually lead And strategize to turn around Danske Bank following The new standards marketing campaign And what have you learned From that failure Well, I think SWIP Hasn't learned that list I think it's a very good question How do you lead a bank In transformation Where all the challenges At the same time bank With deep roots in history Who has been a part Of the financial community A part of the society For many, many years What do you do You spend a lot of time With your employees You spend a lot of time With your customers To tell them what journey are we on And why are we on that journey I have during the last 12 months Had approximately 50 town hall meetings I have met approximately 17,000 One-on-one basically Of our 18,000 Trying to tell what are we doing And why are we doing it It's about also recruiting new blood Making sure that we take away bureaucracy We are empowering And using values And leading by example You all have heard expression Walk the talk It's extremely important The first male agate As a new CEO at Danske Was to approve a Christmas card For 20,000 kronor Then I figure out This is too centralistic organization Then you need to say Use that example We need to get the power And decision making out I'm not going to tell you Which decision I take today But it's much less decisions Again, you lead by example And when people do a good job You tell that So you also talk the walk So it's like when you're in the army When somebody behave well And do something good You tell that story So it's both It's about interacting with people Financial institutions are just A lot of clever people And it's about working with them Constantly with your management team And accept failure Accept that we are different But promote agility Those who take the action And show them this is the way we do it Those who really create value For the shareholders through customer perspective This is how you do it It's not a simple one It's not one rule But that's how I work with it Very physically Very interactive in dialogue Because business in my experience Is also a lot of dilemmas It's not either or It's about taking choices Sometimes you take a wrong choice I've taken a lot of wrong choices But I hopefully have learned of them And that's what you need to do with organization To learn to take those choices And accept also to make failures When you took over the CEO Chair You started talking a lot about the customers I noticed that as well And the audience also has a question That they would like to ask you And that is how are you a different leader From Ivan Culling That will make you more successful Don't try that one As a CEO you never do that We all have a different role Of where we are in the organization And it's not my role To try to separate me from Ivan But what I will believe in Is some of the things I've spoken about And this is how you do it So let's talk about the whole financial sector There's been a huge crisis And there's a lot of different opinions On how much you were saved And not saved So maybe you can address this Because there's a question here That has a lot of votes And it is Do you think that large banks Will always be saved by the government During a crisis as stated In the too big to fail theory And then you might start by answering Were you saved by the government During the last crisis Definitely not, no It's a very good question And the reason why the banking union Is up for creation Is exactly this issue That you're trying to separate The state or the government And the banks And that's why I believe in the banking union I believe in Europe And I believe in banking union Which all the European banks Or linked to the euro will join We being a non-euro country Have the ability to opt in I think we should opt in But at the same time we have said Maybe we should wait To some of the finalization Of the details are completed To get away from this one But remember Denmark was the first country Who introduced that you can Let banks go down And the only country This is what Europe is now actually doing To copy the Danish model The dilemma with Denmark Is being a first mover So it had major implication On Denske on a competitive position Because they believed They being the investors If you let the small bank down Could you also let Denske bank down Because all the other governments Said we will not let any banks down That has a short implication for us In a negative sense But we came through that very well And we're very happy with the state Hybrid capital But it's nothing to save the banks About the ability to generate Capacity to lend out To our clients during the crisis Then you'll get this one Is Denske bank too big Compared to the size of The Danish economy That's also an argument we hear a lot And you are quite big though Compared to the GNB And you're asking me that question? Yes I don't think so, no I think it's a shame And why not? No, it's a shame If we cannot have The Legos, the Danfos And the Denske banks of this world Situated in Denmark Which could be a flagship Of bright people Exporting our competence Externally I'm amazed I'm proud when I travel to Helsinki Or St. Petersburg Or to London When I can hear that Our customers are so proud Of our investment advice And our asset management Which we produce here in Denmark We have a lot to export And I think we should be able to continue to do that We are so well-capitalized To make sure that we can never put Let's call it the society under threat And that's why these SIFI rules Have been put in place To make sure that Denske is so solid And that's why also The good thing about the European stress test Showed that Denske And banks in general were very solid And I think politicians Has recognized that So no, we're definitely not too big For the moment We like to get bigger actually But we also know that being big Also demands certain requirements on us Slightly more capital We need to be slightly more prudent Slightly more transparent And we have certain obligations And that's we need to take into account And being Denske Bank Does that give you a bigger responsibility Towards the Danish state The Danish society To compare to other companies To other banks maybe How do you see upon that? Do you have a responsibility To lend out more money to Companies who need to do investments Than others or? First of all We need to make sure That we create value For our customers When you create value for your customers You directly recruit good people And then you create value For your shareholders Because our size and history We need to make sure that we Run a business with high integrity And that's sociable acceptable circumstances We are not here for ideological reasons But we know we have a particular place In society Particularly when we've been there Since 1871 That's why we fundamentally Changed the rhetoric That all clients are welcome to Denske We know that we are extremely good In servicing the very big And complex clients The private banking clients What we call the mass affluent The young customers But we haven't been good enough To service the average Personal client in Denmark We also even said That you're not welcome at Denske We've changed that around We may not always be The best one in that summit But at least you are very welcome To do that And you will get an acceptable Even good service So in that respect We need to make sure that we comply With the general principle of being A good citizen Without sacrificing What we are said to do Is to make sure that our customers Employees and shareholders Get a good return So they come first So that would be No, you are not You don't have a bigger responsibility Compared to the Danish state Than any other companies Or bank in this country We probably have Than other financial institutions Because we have a size They can be more selective They can select something From or something to We need to take a slightly different perspective And you know that Being from the journalist side That Denske is analysed And everything we do Is being analysed thoroughly So we need to behave Tremendously with respect With what I call integrity And yes we have a big one We try to take it But we must not turn it Into being ideologically And we must not go Compromise on risk You know we get criticised If we learn too little Or we get criticised If we learn too much We need to find what we believe in And I think we are doing that now So I promise you That there would be An opportunity for questions From the audience So this will be Within the next minutes So please raise your hand If you would like to Ask a question to Thomas And while You still have the option For a few minutes We'll take a So you talk about A lot of customer satisfaction And that's been your main driver For the past year You don't need that Because I believe in it You believe in it Yes I know As I talked before And I will tell you again Every question I ever ask You always start With the word customer experience So yes I know So now you will start With that word One more time When I ask you this question How do you work on getting back Customer trust Following the crisis Wow Fantastic question I can give you a hint Something with the customer Satisfaction And relations No but I mean This is I mean one thing Is to say customer satisfaction But how do you Bring it out to life That's basically your question First of all You need to make sure That all units Within an organization of 18,000 19,000 people know It's all about the customers It's not only the one Who faces the customer every day It's actually the one Who works at the IT department In operation In accounting In communication It's about aligning the organization That's the first Secondly You need to figure out What is the client asking for What makes a customer satisfied Why is it That GE In other words General Electric Who has 60 banks Eight core banks Danske is one of those Eight core banks Are voted for the eighth year In a row The best bank for General Electric The world's biggest industrial conglomerates Is because we are able To put ourselves in the eyes Of the customer What they require For example cash management Trade finance and trading So my point is When you're able to service The most complex client We can do it individualized When you bring it down You need to more standardize it Why have we been able To succeed with students Because we are putting 50 advisors together in a room The only focus is on students Because students Has the particular requirements The same is with SMB Or large corporates So you try to put together clusters Where you can read the client And give the clients what they're requiring And adjust quickly One thing is to measure satisfaction But you need to go to root cause And it starts with the basics That when the phone rings You pick it up We go to the teller Somebody take care of you Within X number of minutes And then you go up the value chain And you are a part of Making sure that your ambitions That we can support your ambitions Buying your first house Buying your first car Or that you want to invest In machinery for the future That's where we play in So we need to make your daily finances Smooth and easy But also the big decisions We are a part A very important part Of people's daily life But also the big decisions And that's what we need to do From an outside in perspective Not the inside out So I noticed that the question says How did you work on getting it back But you are not quite there yet are you? We are definitely not there On all accounts But we can see that we have come a long way Where we are struggling Is what I call the retail market In Denmark And also to be honest in Finland We are extremely good On the business side Investment banking side Private banking side We are number one in Sweden On the business side But it's the mass market We have 3.8 million clients And what we can see More often we get in contact With the most SETVRA But we haven't been good enough To get in contact with all clients And we know you are watching it Everybody is watching it We will get there But it takes some time To get all these 3.8 million To get exposed to all our services You were losing a lot of customers At some point How is that going now? It's like talking to the press It's going very well Thank you So can we get some numbers on it? I know you know the numbers So can you share them with us? It's going very well So that means You are not losing customers anymore? We are losing fewer and fewer clients And we are getting more and more new clients In business Which has been focused On SM Small and medium size We have a net surplus On personal clients What I call The average retail We are still losing that small number But soon that will turn around No question about it I am sure you are going to ask me Yes we will have plenty of time For that some other time I am sure yes So almost the last question I think we are Basically this question is about A new financial crisis How present is the potential threat Of a new financial crisis Maybe not just in your strategy But what do you think Of the whole financial situation With the macroeconomics Things going on in Europe How far are we from disaster? Now I think we are very far From a disaster I know from a Danish bank No but I think Because we have been through The stress test It has never been more analysed In the last 50 years So I think it is so much focus on it So I am not worried for now Or the next 10 years But I think what we are all struggling with Where is the new crisis coming Because we don't know where it is coming from And I think that is what we are all struggling with That is what regulators are struggling with That is what we as bankers also think about Where can it come Which we are not seeing today But for now The sector is extremely solid And the small holes we have Are being plugged Particularly in southern Europe So it is a very different world We have today now We had previously But history will repeat itself Won't it? It will not It will repeat But with a different angle And that is what this challenge Because if you look at the last Financial crisis The one in the 20s Maybe in the 90s And the one here now It is a very different route course So yes We may have some challenges But we don't know where it is coming from But that is why I think it is very solid What particularly we have done in Denmark About solid capital Liquidity rules And solid bank work Can we just have one more question And I haven't seen anybody Raise their hands in the audience So that is why we haven't gone out there So yes So let's just have this one also Because it has a lot of votes And because I know it is your favorite subject Danish bank Ireland Danish bank what? Ireland Because that was one of the things That really hurt in the Danish bank group The Ireland adventure Which has been closing down For the past year I think But which leadership challenges Have you faced in Danish banks Ireland adventure And how did you... Super let's take one step back Danske went into Ireland That being the Republic of Ireland And Northern Ireland in 2005 Everybody The press The investors The shareholders The analysts Everybody said This is the smartest thing Danske could do Because it was a growth scenario This would create great value It was based on a scenario It turned out in retrospect That Ireland collapsed We didn't see it Nobody saw it That also means that You can plan, you can get praise But it also has certain consequences When a country collapses So it's very good today to say It was not a very good move But at that time It was seen as a very good move So when then you first faced the crisis Which we did in 2009 How do you work your way out of it You face reality And this is you basically Take your best people to Ireland To work out the problems This flip side of that Is that you take very good people Who should develop the business And bring them to Ireland to solve a problem And that's the other dilemma When a business has certain Let's call it issues or problems You lose focus on the growth potential And that's also in retrospect We became slightly defensive in Denmark Because we had to use so much resources in Ireland Also tells you it's draining the organisation When you have these issues The good thing is Ireland is being a closed chapter We'll have no P&L effect in 2015 And we can move on But one of the reasons why it came to Copenhagen I was called by Peter Straub in 2009 And said basically go to Ireland and fix it It wasn't that easy actually but we worked on it You really didn't do a good job there Thomas You have to But it sounds like That Danske Bank shouldn't regret Ireland When you talk about it in a manner that Back in 2005 everything was fine Everybody was growing Danske Bank needed to grow as well Looking back isn't it okay to regret it It's cost you a lot of... Yeah of course you should never have done it I said that many times But what I'm saying is It's just also telling the story Everything in hindsight You can judge but at that time It seems like a good strategy So what have we learned We learned a couple of things Maybe stick to core So we have defined we're going to be A Nordic Universal Bank Because we think we know the home market We bridge this to the world So then we're going to support our clients To go internationally We're probably not going to enter new markets Because that's slightly Outside our core competence So yes We can always criticize a decision afterwards But you need to stand up for what you've done And then you need to clean it up And then you need to learn from it And take new actions on it I think that's a very fine end note Thank you very much Thomas Boulton from Danske Bank Thank you