Sweden's ForeningsSparbanken (Swedbank) is to shut down its Danish Internet bank, Firstviewbank.com, after just six months of operation.
The liquidation will take place gradually during the autumn, as Firstviewbank's customers are offered alternative solutions in the Danish market says the bank. Negotiations about a transfer of assets are believed to be taking place with Skandiabanken.
Swedbank will take a charge of Skr60 million against the costs of shutting down the business in the third quarter.
"Firstviewbank was started as a pilot operation in February of this year," says Gert Engman, executive vice president and head of Swedbank's e-business division. "Quickly changing market conditions have made it more difficult than we expected to recruit new customers in the Danish market. The road to profitability would be too long."
Firstviewbank was launched in co-operation with Danish industrial concern FIH and had set a target of 100,000 - 150,000 customers within three years.
Engman says Swedbank's ownership interest in, and cooperation with, the Danish industrial finance company FIH is not affected by the decision.