Reply To: Sogn Sparebank (Ticker: Sogn)
Wanted to expand a bit on management. A bad manager can really f… up a bank (or insurance company).
“Mads Arnfinn Indrehus has led the bank since the merger in 2019, he came from the position of one of the merging banks (Vik). He has put in place a staff reduction and optimized the offices some.”
Just listed to Focused Compounding, and they had a good point about not wanting to invest in bank CEOs that got in trouble in 2008. For an IT founder to formerly have failed is okay, maybe even preferable, but to have taken an excessive risk in a bank is another matter.
Mads Arnfinn Indrehus has been the CEO of Vik Sparebank since 2001. Therefore, I took a dive into Vik’s older annual reports.
Their losses did not spike in 2008/2009, and their profit was also quite stable.
They did a decent job at cutting cost per NOK loaned out, however, so did the rest of the industry. I would imagine digitalization and in general larger loans contributed:
https://sognbank.no/-/media/banker/sognsparebank/Investor-Relation/Vik-2014.pdf
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BecQrVmFI8&ab_channel=FocusedCompounding