200 new risk management-type jobs at Swedbank

Swedbank didn't do very well in the last quarter. Heavy exposure to the slumping Baltic states contributed to a SKr3.36bn loss.

The upshot of this, however, is that the bank will create around 240 jobs for a new risk management unit to tackle distressed debt in the region.

Up to 200 people will be recruited for the Baltic Financial Restructuring and Recovery Unit which aims to be active before the end of the first half of 2009.

The new hires will report to the chief risk officer at Swedbank and will be based in the Baltics. Swedbank says it's looking for experience of guiding companies through similar recessionary situations and thinks it'll find this expertise in places like the UK, Sweden and Germany.

The job itself will be to attempt to eliminate the risks from the deteriorating financial position of businesses and individuals responsible for the impaired loans, and to attempt to return them to a profitable position in order to try and claw some of the money back. As such, they sound very like the special servicers we referred to a few months ago.

Another 40 jobs are being created to specifically target bad loans in Ukraine.