OREANDA-NEWS. August 16, 2011. The next step in Swedbank’s development involves a number of top management changes. Goran Bronner, Swedbank’s current Chief Risk Officer, will become the new Chief Financial Officer. Hakan Berg, the current Head of Baltic Banking will be the new Chief Risk Officer. The new Head of Baltic Banking will be Birgitte Bonnesen at present Head of Internal Audit. All changes will take place with immediate effect, reported the press-centre of Swedbank.

”Since 2009, Swedbank has focused on improving governance, decreasing risks, strengthening capitalisation, extending funding, and increasing liquidity reserves. We have worked to increase decentralisation as well as individual employees’ decision-making powers by establishing clear routines and structures. We have come a long way in two and a half years,” said Michael Wolf, President and CEO of Swedbank.

“We are now entering a phase where we will increasingly focus on improvements regarding effectiveness, processes, and quality. With Goran Bronner as the new CFO, I will have a manager with proven capacity to forcefully implement these changes,” continued Michael Wolf.
Goran Bronner has been the CRO of Swedbank since March 2009. Before that, he was partner and founder of the Tanglin fund, from 2000 to 2009. Previously, he held various management positions within the bank SEB, including responsibility for its operations in Asia in the period 1997 to 2000.

The current Head of Baltic Banking, Hakan Berg, will be the new Chief Risk Officer.

“With Hakan Berg as the new CRO, we have a person with a long and extensive track record from the various operations within the bank. One obvious strength with having Hakan as the new CRO is that he has been active in handling the bank’s problem loans in Sweden during the 1990s bank crisis as well as his active role in the work mitigating the financial crisis in the Baltic countries,” Michael Wolf went on to say.

Hakan Berg has been employed by the bank since 1985. Apart from, since 2009, being the Head of the business area Baltic Banking, his positions have among others included Head of Internal Audit, Head of retail business development in Forenings Sparbanken, regional manager in Stockholm and branch manager.

Swedbank’s present Head of Internal Audit, Birgitte Bonnesen, will become the new Head of Baltic Banking.

”Birgitte Bonnesen has a long, international banking track record in Swedbank. As Head of Internal Audit she also has extensive knowledge of all areas of the bank. An internationally experienced leader with a solid Group track record, Birgitte Bonnesen will forcefully continue developing the Baltic Banking business area as well as capitalising on the gains stemming from integration in the bank’s four home markets,” concluded Michael Wolf.

Birgitte Bonnesen succeeded Hakan Berg as Head of Internal Audit in 2009. She has been employed in the bank since 1987, and has held a significant number of managerial positions within the former Swedbank Markets, including Head of CRM (consisting of “Financial Institutions”, ”Cash and Clearing”, ”Trade Finance”, and ”Custody”) between 2004 and 2009,. She was head of the bank’s contacts with other financial institutions in North America, Europe, the Baltic countries and the Nordic countries between 1997 and 2001. Birgitte Bonnesen will become a member of the Group Executive Committee.