Topic: [2018-01-24] Nordea Bans Employees From Trading in Cryptocurrencies (Read 66 times)

It isn't strange. They just want to prevent their employees from developing an anti banking system attitude due to what level of features and freedom Bitcoin offers. It cuts out banks, makes their entire way of working obsolete with their next working day transactions, grants people access to their wealth 24/7, they don't need to justify any action anymore, while they need the permission of their bank right now. In that regard, I can very well understand why banks are doing this. You can see it as self protection of the bank itself, and not so much that their employees need that protection. The bank doesn't care a single bit about their employees - they just want to remain their ancient way of conducting business the same for many more decades.

Most banks have restrictions in place on where their employees can invest. JP Morgan CEO once even said that he would fire employees found investing in Bitcoin, because it is against their rules AND he would consider them stupid.
The stance of Nordea Bank is that it wants to 'protect' its employees. It is strange, that a bank should consider that its employees need 'protection'...

Sweden Banking Group Nordea Bans Employees From Trading in Cryptocurrencies

Sweden banking group Nordea announced this week that it is banning all of its approximately 31,000 employees from trading in cryptocurrencies due to high risk. The new ban will go into effect on February 28th.

A Nordea spokesperson confirmed with Reuters that the bank believes that the risk of using cryptocurrencies are too high and the protection is currently insufficient for both the employees and bank. The media outlet also revealed that Bank of America Merrill Lynch also banned clients from investing in one of bitcoin mogul Barry Silbert’s top funds last month. Therefore, Nordea is not considered the first bank to consider ditching cryptocurrency.

The news of the cryptocurrency ban comes just as Nordea revealed its economic outlook, which is the growth is “solid.” Nordea’s Group Chief Economist, Helge J. Pedersen, reported:

    “The synchronous recovery of the global economy remains strong at the beginning of 2018. Many countries are now struggling with skilled labour shortages and signs of building wage pressures are emerging especially in the central and eastern European countries. This could spread to other European countries at a more mature stage of the economic cycle, including Denmark, Norway and Sweden.”

Nordea also listed the economic growth in the following countries:

    Swedish GDP: Domestic demand continues to rise in the coming years supported by an expansionary fiscal policy. The slowdown in the housing market is having an impact. Demand for labour remains high, but the large influx of labour will make unemployment fall only gradually. A repo rate hike from the current -0.50% is a long way off as inflation is not sufficiently high for such a move
    Norway: Recovery is firming, with broadly based growth in both production and employment. Even the oil-related industries now show signs of growth and plans for increased oil investment going forward means growth will pick up. Housing prices, however, look set to drop a bit further, although not enough to threaten the recovery. We look for the first rate hike towards end-2018 but the tightening of monetary policy will be very gradual.
    Danish Economy: Businesses benefit from growing global activity, while consumers’ purchasing power has increased due to a pick-up in employment, low-interest rates, and positive real wage trends.
    Finland: Strong confidence and a robust global environment are expected to support the economy in the coming years. Labour market strengthening is assumed to boost consumption and favorable financial conditions should support investment growth. The price competitiveness of Finnish goods and services has improved recently and we expect net trade to contribute positively to growth.

From: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2018/01/127523-sweden-banking-group-nordea-bans-employees-trading-cryptocurrencies/