SWEDEN – Around 100 jobs at Nordea could be affected by a €240bn global custody agreement between the Nordic financial services firm and the Bank of New York.

The two firms announced an agreement today to provide custody and related services to Nordea’s institutional clients in the Nordic and Baltic regions.

Nordea spokesperson Atte Palomäki said the positions affected would primarily be in the technical platform of the operations side. Palomäki stated that those in posts directly affected would most likely be redeployed internally, but denied any sort of retrenchment scheme.

The deal “will cater for our biggest customers, and we will be able to provide a better portfolio,” Palomäki added.

Bank of New York spokesman Ivan Royle said that no Nordea employees would be absorbed in the agreement. “That is a Nordea matter,” he told IPE.

The agreement - which involves €240 billion of Nordea’s €500 billion of assets under custody - will be implemented towards the second half of 2006.

Nordea today unveiled a second-quarter net profit of €1.2bn. It has €142bn in assets under management.

“By combining Nordea’s local presence and market expertise with the Bank of New York’s global leadership and product capabilities, the agreement will deliver industry leading securities services to Nordea’s institutional clients through a local network,” said the company’s head of financial institutions division, Birger Gezelius.

The Bank of New York was equally enthusiastic about the development. According to executive vice president and head of Europe, Tim Keaney, “The Nordic market is an important and growing market for us as we develop our European business and build on our strong heritage in global securities servicing. Working together we will create a powerful new force in the region, providing an integrated global and local solution to clients.”