Swedbank Plan to Move Data Center Raises Worry, Paeevaleht Says

A plan by Swedbank AB (SWEDA) to relocate its Estonian data center which coordinates its operations in the three Baltic countries by 2015 has raised concerns among officials responsible for Estonia’s cyber security, Eesti Paeevaleht reported.

The move, part of Swedbank’s drive to cut costs, would make it difficult for Estonia to protect the financial data and the depositors, according to Toomas Vaks, a senior cyber security official at the Estonian Information System’s Authority,the newspaper reported.

It is difficult for other countries to understand the concerns of Estonia, where 98 percent of all payments are made via the Internet and where Swedbank and its Stockholm-based peer Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEBA) have 80 percent of all deposits, the newspaper said. The Interior Ministry is drafting legislation to oblige the providers of vital services, including Swedbank, to keep their information systems in Estonia, it added.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ott Ummelas in Tallinn at oummelas@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net