Nordea Bank Abp,commonly referred to as Nordea, is a European financial services group operating in northern Europe and based in Helsinki, Finland.The name is a blend of the words "Nordic" and "idea". The bank is the result of the successive mergers and acquisitions of the Finnish, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian banks of Merita Bank, Nordbanken, Unidanmark, and Christiania Bank og Kreditkasse that took place between 1997 and 2001. The Nordic countries are considered Nordea's home market, having finalised the sales of their Baltic operations in 2019. The largest shareholder of Nordea is Sampo, a Finnish insurance company with 15.9% of the shares.