First Securities has 230 employees and three offices in Oslo, Bergen and Stavanger. The two firms have been collaborating since 2002, when Swedbank first became a shareholder, and the acquisition is intended to enable Swedbank to realise the full potential of that collaboration in terms of proficiency, revenues, costs and organisational structure, the bank said in a statement.

The purchase price for the acquisition, which is expected to be completed by the end of this month, was a cash consideration of NOK539 million . As part of the transaction, an additional amount, representing a net cost for Swedbank of up to NOK172 million plus the sellers' share of the 2010 dividend, has been agreed in order to retain key staff and incentivise employees up to and including 2013, the statement continued.

"Through the merger, Swedbank and First Securities can work with fully integrated customer strategies, products and services and our offer will be substantially improved through this integration,” said Stefan Carlsson, Swedbank’s head of large corporates and institutions.

“This strengthens our offerings in the entire Nordic and Baltic region, and naturally also in Norway. We are also convinced that we will strengthen the corporate culture even further through the acquisition."

In other recent developments, in August it emerged that Swedbank had opted not to sell its troubled Russian subsidiary which includes a private banking operation. There had been speculation that Finland’s Pojola Bank, Barclays and HSBC, as well as Russia’s MDM Bank and Alfa-Bank, were among the potential buyers. However after reassessing the situation the bank told WealthBriefing that it was concerned that if it offloaded its Russian business then it could face difficulties in re-entering the market in future.