In 2019 Danske Bank announced the closure of its businesses in the Baltics. This followed a money laundering case in Estonia that led to the bank closing its offices in Estonia and selling its Lithuanian and Latvian businesses.
The scandal forced Danske Bank into a deep clean and strategic refocus. This was most recently led by CEO Carsten Egeriis, who was appointed in 2021.
What is Danske Bank’s Forward ’28 Strategy?
In June 2023 Danske Bank announced its new Forward ’28 strategy. Interestingly the strategy set financial targets and capital distribution for 2026 rather than 2023.
To support the execution of the strategy, the bank committed to significantly increasing its annual investments in its core capabilities within digital platforms, expert advisory services and sustainability from DKK 3 billion to DKK 4 billion (approximately $616 million). Combined with the reprioritization of other investments, this means that the bank can more than double its investments.
CEO Carsten Egeriis said at the time: “With our new strategy, we set clear ambitions for Danske Bank to be a leading bank in a digital age. Serving a quarter of the personal customers in our home market, we will work hard to continue to earn their trust and to affirm our position as the bank of choice in Denmark.”
Danske Bank 2025 Results
Danske Bank reported a robust financial performance for 2025, posting a net profit of DKK 23.0 billion (approximately $3.5 billion) and a return on equity of 13.3%. The bank proposed a total dividend distribution of DKK 22.72 per share (including an ordinary dividend of DKK 16.94 and an extraordinary dividend of DKK 5.78) and announced a new DKK 4.5 billion share buy-back programme.
The results reflect continued execution of the Forward ’28 strategy, supported by strong customer activity and high credit quality. Notable progress was seen in digital transformation, GenAI adoption, and operational efficiency. Operating expenses were tightly controlled at DKK 25.8 billion, while the bank highlighted investments in cloud migration and platform modernisation aimed at delivering a 20% increase in technology productivity by 2026.
Danske Bank’s Focus on AI
AI has become a central theme for Danske Bank, which operates in a country with one of the highest AI adoption rates in the EU.
In January 2026, CEO Carsten Egeriis spoke at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where he emphasised the long-term nature of AI investments. “We’re not thinking just the next quarter. We’re thinking 10 – 15 years and how things might change. When you are deploying AI you have to spend a lot on building the basics including the GenAI platform, getting the data in place, starting to use the tools and the return doesn’t come right away.”
He added: “I want adoption to go faster. But when I look at the last year then I would say that it’s gone faster than I expected.”
“Our retail bankers use Copilot to take meeting minutes,” Egeriis shared.“This means they save up to 14% more time than before when they made notes themselves. We also have a little over 3,000 software developers, a lot of them use GitHub and other software tools where ROI is immediately visible.”
Danske Bank has long been a significant investor in technology. Egeriis explained that while every process in banking is now ripe for transformation, meaningful change requires both investment and time.
“You have to have the data, you have to have the agents that do the different pieces, interpret financial results or work with data, and then get them to talk to each other.”
“That’s where the larger investments are,” Egeriis explained. “If you’ve got conviction and you believe that this [AI] is going to be a gamechanger, which I have no doubt, then you have to make those investments but still make the quarterly numbers.”
The bank is also strengthening its AI and technology teams in locations such as Belfast and Warsaw.
Danske Bank’s First Head of AI
Carsten Egeriis’s comments on AI came shortly after the appointment of Dr Fiona Browne as the bank’s first head of Artificial Intelligence. In her new role, Browne will lead the strategic development and deployment of AI across the organisation and head up a new AI Centre of Excellence in Belfast.
She will work closely with Lyndsay Shields, Head of Data & Analytics, as part of Danske Bank’s increased investment in AI and data capabilities.
“Danske Bank has demonstrated real leadership in adopting Generative AI responsibly and driving innovation. I’m delighted to join the team at Danske at a time of significant digital development and investment and look forward to helping the bank realise the opportunities AI offers to provide an even better banking experience for our customers and to help colleagues in their roles.” Fiona shared.
Danske Bank’s Operations in Poland
Danske Bank has had an office in Poland since 2007. The company has served Nordic customers and subsidiaries of Nordic companies doing business in Poland from this office. Over the years things have changed though, and in September 2023 Danske Bank in Poland welcomed its 500th employee.
The bank took out a lease for a large office in Warsaw in December 2024. This investment was overseen by Carsten Thing, who was Country Manager in Poland at the time. Thomas Bjørnskov took over the role in January 2026. This growth trajectory mirrors the investment commitments made by CEO Carsten Egeriis.
Warsaw is by far Danske Bank’s largest international technology hub and the second-largest location overall after Denmark. Warsaw now accounts for roughly 20% of the bank’s total workforce. The hub has evolved from a low-cost shared services centre into a strategic technology powerhouse supporting cloud migration, platform modernisation, GenAI development, and digital product delivery. The hub is central to executing the Forward ’28 strategy.
Warsaw has evolved from a low-cost shared services centre into a genuine strategic technology powerhouse.
Danske Bank isn’t the only bank with a large technology hub in Poland. It sits next to global behemoths like HSBC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Standard Chartered.
Can Poland’s Talent Deliver?
With over 4,000 people working in the Warsaw hub, Polish talent has already arguably delivered. However, the team is not just tech focused, there are many other roles that have been recruited. These cover sectors such as:
- Cybersecurity
- AML / KYC
- Compliance
- Data
- Cloud
- Quantitative Development & Analytics
- Financial Reporting
The bank also employs an AI Senior Solution Architect in AWS, several Full Stack developers, Java developers and plenty of .NET engineers.
The question isn’t whether Poland’s talent can deliver, it’s about how much Poland’s talent can deliver.
Author: Andy Samu
See Also:
Is it Worth Investing in Poland in 2025? | Disruption Banking
