Barriers to Provide Cross Border Services/Case Study Nordea
There is an increase of financial integration, which can be seen in recent mergers of banks, financial institutions etc. in the European Union especially in the Nordic countries. However there are some weaknesses in providing consumers cross border services in the sector of banking, such as cross border bank account transfer of payments. The existing transaction costs do not encourage cross border services. Nevertheless a customer of a global or European bank can anticipate to be treated the same way in all of its branch offices inside the EU countries. Therefore in order to understand why this occurs the problems leading to this should be explored. This thesis is about the identification of the barriers to cross border services in the banking sector using ?Nordea? a merger of four banks in four different Nordic countries as case study. Moreover, the Nordic countries were chosen as target research countries given the proximity and similarity of these countries (i.e. Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) therefore they also are the most densely financially integrated countries compared to other EU countries. The first part of this thesis introduces a case study of a merged bank functioning across borders. This case also demonstrates the problems of law influencing the barriers to provide services to its consumers across borders while under the same bank. Following the introduction and analysis of the case study, a second dimension is added which is corporate branding. The meaning of the corporate branding in the case of cross border mergers is examined.Lastly, the results from the interviews conducted at Nordea will serve as a base to understand the meaning of corporate branding in the case of Nordea. This thesis will also provide a legal framework for the consumers on how and why the functioning of cross border services of banks work in certain ways. The Euro Regulation and EC Directives on improving services hence their effect on the functioning of banking transactions will be examined. This thesis explores why it is so and what can the EC legislation do to facilitate it. By analyzing the corporate brand a consumer perspective is added and to figure out how consumers can benefit more in terms of using cross border services in the globalizing world.