Frankfurt, March 12, 2026 – The Europe Today: The European Central Bank (ECB) has imposed a €2.26 million financial penalty on Nordea after its Finnish subsidiary incorrectly reported credit risk exposures for several years, in violation of European Union banking regulations.
The sanction relates to Nordea Finance Finland, a financing company owned by the Nordic banking group. According to the ECB, the subsidiary incorrectly reported guaranteed receivables between 2021 and 2024.
Instead of attributing the exposures to the guarantors responsible for the guarantees, the company recorded them under the borrowers, contrary to regulatory changes introduced in 2021 that required banks to classify such exposures under guarantors.
The reporting error persisted for 13 consecutive quarters, leading the subsidiary to exceed the European Union’s limits on large exposures to individual clients. Under EU banking rules, large exposures are defined as those exceeding 10 percent of a bank’s capital base, while institutions are prohibited from allowing any single exposure to exceed 25 percent of their capital.
The ECB stated that the breaches occurred due to “serious negligence”, citing weaknesses in the bank’s internal control systems as a contributing factor.
Nordea said the issue was identified internally in October 2024 by Nordea Finance Finland. The bank stated that it immediately notified the ECB and took corrective measures to address both the reporting error and its underlying causes.
“We informed the European Central Bank immediately, corrected the issue and the root cause behind it,” Nordea said in a statement to Verkkouutiset.
The bank added that the violation does not affect Nordea’s capital structure or exposure limits at the group level. It also noted that internal oversight procedures have been strengthened to prevent similar incidents in the future.
The ECB’s decision is not yet final, and Nordea retains the right to challenge the ruling before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
According to Finnish business daily Kauppalehti, which first reported the sanction, the penalty relates specifically to breaches of EU rules governing large exposure limits and risk management reporting.
