A common stock exchange for the Nordic countries? Sari Lounasmeri: That’s how it would seem

The basic idea of ​​merging the Nordic stock exchanges is in the right direction, but especially for small Finnish listed companies, the change would have its risks. That’s what he says Stock Exchange Foundation managing director Sari Lounasmeri.

“In the entire EU, there has been the idea that the EU would like to compete better with the United States as a securities market. In the United States, the stock exchanges are really concentrated and it is felt that certain benefits can be gained from it, so in that sense it makes perfect sense that we are going in that direction.”

The news agency Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Nordic Compass, an alliance of Nordic companies and investors, is preparing a proposal to merge the region’s stock markets into one stock exchange. According to the news agency, merging the stock exchanges is one of the ideas the group is considering to bring the region’s capital markets closer together.

The alliance includes, among other things Wallenberg Investments, EQT, Nordea, SEB, Nasdaq and Novo Nordisk -foundation. There are also participants from Finland Kone, Nokia, Patria and the Finnish Independence Celebration Fund Zither.

According to Bloomberg, Nordic Compass plans to present its vision at its summit in Gothenburg in November.

Chairman of Nordic Compass’ capital markets area, Blackrockin Chairman of the Nordic countries Christian Clausen commented on the news in a statement sent to Kauppalehti as follows:

“Nordic Compass’ Capital Markets Sub-Area [Capital Markets Track] aims to improve opportunities to raise capital to support competitiveness in all phases from start-up, venture, growth and scale-up phases to listings, and to develop the Nordic listing ecosystem. This includes analyzing a number of potential initiatives, including liquidity issues. The work is still in the clarification phase, and individual initiatives or conclusions have not yet been agreed upon.”

Where would the stock market point?

Lounasmeri notes that the integration of the Nordic stock exchanges is actually already quite far along. With the exception of Norway, all Nordic stock exchanges are run by Nasdaq, which means that the stock exchanges are already in the same trading system and, technically, are largely in the same boat.

Lounasmeri estimates that the greatest benefits would be obtained from the integration of trading systems. That’s why he thinks that the first thing to do is unite the individual exchanges that currently run all their operations themselves.

Of course, unification or at least convergence has already been seen, as Nasdaq runs stock exchanges in all the Baltic countries in addition to the Nordic countries. Euronext again operates in Amsterdam, Athens, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris.

And even if the idea is in the right direction, at least the Helsinki stock exchange does not have a special problem under a larger umbrella, according to Lounasmere. According to Lounasmere, the domestic stock exchange is already a viable and good stock exchange for its size. He wonders if some of the desired benefits could already be achieved, for example, by establishing a common Nordic stock index.

“Kind of [yhdistyminen] is a reasonable idea, but perhaps in a national romantic way, I wondered if it would mean more that everything in the Nordic countries is concentrated in Sweden. If [yhteisen pörssin kotipaikka] is Finland, so it suits me really well.”

Lounasmeri finds one clear trump card for centralizing the Nordic stock exchange in Finland: membership of the currency union, i.e. the euro.

An advantage for small investors, a threat for companies

A common, larger marketplace could attract more international money already because investing in the Nordic stock market would be clearer than individual countries.

Lounasmeri estimates that the merger of the stock exchanges would not necessarily improve the situation of the smallest companies on the stock exchange. There are already several small companies on the Helsinki stock exchange, whose shares are traded daily for negligible amounts. Then genuine price formation is difficult and shares are difficult to trade properly.

“The Stockholm stock exchange has more of everything, but also more of this kind of illiquidity [osakkeita]. If we had all the Nordic companies on the same list, would investors still notice the small ones?”

According to Lounasmere, the joint stock exchange might face one problem: the ticketing of fast-growing new IPOs to Wall Street. From Sweden to the United States, they have listed, among others Klarna and Spotifyabout companies of Finnish background, for example Ouran is expected to be listed in the United States soon.

“It is important that Europe is able to attract and retain large IPOs. If there was anything in that, then [yhdistymisessä] would definitely make a certain amount of sense, because so many things are linked to the location of the listing, starting with the head office’s home location.”

According to Lounasmere, the potential benefits of the merger for ordinary Finnish investors could come indirectly. One Nordic stock exchange would probably also change the situation in the competition of stock brokers, and the change could put pressure on the calculation of broker and subscription fees.

“Probably that field would become even more international and there would be more competition, in which case it would be possible for the cost level to decrease, which would of course be very welcome for investors. In Sweden, trading costs and fund management fees are lower than in Sweden. Sweden is certainly the cheapest market in Europe from an investor’s point of view.”

Kauppalehti has also requested comments regarding the news from Nasdaq Helsinki and the chairman of the board of Nordic Compass, Nordea’s director of social relations Jyrki Katainen. Nordea was informed on Thursday afternoon that the company has no comment on the news.

8/27/2026 at 4:43 p.m.: Added information that Nordea had no comment on the news.