Øyvind Thomassen, CEO of Skandiabanken, began his career with Vesta Insurance Company. As the company was bought out the following year by Skandia, Øyvind has spent 25 years learning about the Skandia brand and its operations across the Nordic region. He was instrumental in the introduction and development of Skandiabanken in Norway in 1999, and in 2010 he was asked to take over the Swedish branch of the business as well.
It was quite a journey, Øyvind recalls, but the special history about Skandia was that in Sweden, the change of strategies since 2001 and the change of CEOsespecially for the bankhas been enormous. I was the eighth CEO in eight years. But in Norway, weve had the same strategy, the same CEO, and the same owner since 2000. Skandiabanken in Norway has been a great success, but we have not had the same success in Sweden because of all these changes. The focus now is to really turn around the Swedish business and make it a success with Skandia as a group.
With responsibilities across Sweden and Norway, Øyvind notes the challenges and triumphs associated with each market. The major difference is that in the Norwegian region we are only operating in digital channels, so this is a purely self-service concept. In Sweden, we are the leading life insurance company, which is the base of our business. Were also quite big in various saving solutions, and then we have a bank, which is more or less the same size as the Norwegian one, but much less than the savings and loan insurance company in Skandia.