Berlingske and TV2 are in possession of an internal e-mail sent on 25 November last year, which reveals the role of Karsten Dybvad, Chairman of the Board of Danske Bank, in the dismissal of the debt collection scandal that has engulfed the bank this year.
According to the email, the chairman stressed the importance of describing the debt collection case only in general terms.
‘Operational risk-related losses’ was the term behind how illegal debt collection was hidden in the bank’s annual report – a phrase proposed by Jacob Aarup-Andersen, the then CFO.
Hiding from the public
Two months after the publication of the annual report, a communication plan was written – also seen by Berlingske and TV2 – with a description of how they would “avoid the risk of ‘normal’ customers hearing about the case”.
In a written response to TV2, Dybvad has denied that the e-mail was an expression of his desire to hide the details of the debt collection scandal.
A bad year gets worse
Today, Danske Bank announced that a further 257 employees would be fired, with a further 261 employees in Denmark accepting voluntary redundancies. It is part of the plan to cut 1,600 jobs next year.
The cuts come with the closure of most of the bank’s remaining cash registers – a recognition by the bank that most customers now prefer to manage their daily transactions online – a trend that is rapidly accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.
Pricerunner warns against fake Black Friday deals
According to the price comparison service Pricerunner, a number of the largest online stores in Denmark have prepared for Black Friday by raising prices. Since beginning their analysis on September 11, 70 percent of the 50 stores they surveyed have raised prices. By law, an item must have had the same price for six weeks before stores describe it as the ‘normal’ price.
The Consumer Ombudsman issues a warning to debt collectors
In response to Danske Bank’s illegal debt collection cases, the Consumer Ombudsman has reminded debt collection and law firms that they must check that the debt they have been forced to collect is not the result of errors. If they do not adequately ensure that there have been no accounting errors, they may also be retaliated against.
Companies repay almost 400 million kroner in coronavirus compensation
More than 1,300 Danish companies have voluntarily paid approximately DKK 400 million of the coronavirus help package back to the state, despite the fact that they are entitled to the compensation. The fashion group Bestseller accounted for the largest repayments totaling DKK 81.2 million, after it became clear in mid-September that the group would avoid losing. Matas, Grundfos, Scania and others also paid back at least DKK 5 million each. The state approved 56,000 applications for support equivalent to 12.6 billion kroner in funds.
Highly polluting voices dissatisfaction with the green tax proposal
Aalborg Portland, the cement production giant and by far Denmark’s largest CO2 producer, has criticized the government’s proposed new green tax on emissions. The company produced over 2 million tonnes of CO2 in 2018 – a production level that pays 76 million kroner a year, which is a quarter of the company’s profit. “We need help to switch to natural gas, but this proposal suggests that regardless of whether we switch to natural gas, we will have an extra cost, and therefore we have no incentive,” explained CEO Michael Lundgaard Thomsen.
The Danes’ savings exceed one trillion
For the first time in history, deposits in Danish bank accounts total more than DKK 1 trillion. The banks had DKK 1,020 billion in October – an increase of DKK 28.6 billion in September, according to figures from Danmarks Nationalbank. The increase is mainly due to the payment of three weeks’ holiday pay, approx. 32 billion, which is paid out after tax.
Jysk sleeps well
Record high sales, mainly of duvets and pillows, have led the Danish home goods retailer Jysk to its largest profit ever. The company achieved a profit before tax of DKK 3.6 billion in the last financial year. Following a new wave of openings, Jysk now has almost 3,000 stores worldwide, and it employs approximately 26,500 people.
Life exports exported new heights
The Danish life science sector has been growing for many years now, but now its contribution to the Danish economy has reached an exciting new milestone. Global life science exports from Denmark are now greater than the country’s total exports of goods and services to Germany. Denmark is the world leader in the sector with the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk as the largest of the country’s life science figures.
Online shopping boom
Driven by the coronavirus pandemic, shoppers in Denmark turn to online to find their items in numbers never seen before. The proportion of online shoppers in the country has increased by 5 percentage points from 2019 to 2020 – the highest increase in the last seven years. Today, 75 percent of people aged 16-89 have shopped online within the last three months.
Source: The Nordic Page