Nordea and IBM have signed a 10-year, e2.2bn ($2.5bn) IT service agreement to transform and consolidate Nordea's overall IT production services. Nordea and IBM are forming a single-purpose joint-venture, which will employ around 900 employees from Nordea from next month.

The division Nordea is outsourcing represents an annual cost of €330m to €340m, including investment-related expenses of €30m in the fourth quarter. When the transformation is complete the partnership will bring significant savings to Nordea. There will be a slight decrease in absolute costs during the next three years despite important transformation investments and volume growth.