Folkia recruits Magnus Sjögren as new Head of Compliance

Folkia has strengthened its organization by recruiting a new Head of Compliance, Magnus Sjögren, who started working at the company on July 1st. Magnus’ previous position was at the Nordic Investment Bank in Helsinki, where he worked with compliance issues as well as legal issues relating to granting credit, IT and computer security. He also has experience as a lawyer at the law firm Vinge in Stockholm, where he worked from 2001 until 2006. Before that, Magnus worked as Law Clerk at the Stockholm County Administrative Court and as Legal Counsel at a newly established IT company. Since 2007, Magnus has been a member of the International Bar Association, specializing in issues such as anti-corruption and anti-money laundering.

“Folkia has high ambitions for compliance issues,” says Per Spångberg, CEO of Folkia. “I am personally very pleased that we have succeeded in recruiting Magnus to Folkia. He has exactly the background from financial operations, government bodies, law and the IT sector that we need. Magnus will continue to build up our network of relevant contacts in the countries where we operate, so that we can remain at the forefront when it comes to complying with laws and regulations as well as maintaining the high ethical standard of everything we do, not least our customer communication.”

The Head of Compliance position is independent from the business organization. Magnus will have overall responsibility for issues including:

ü  Ensuring that Folkia complies with all relevant laws and regulations

ü  Monitoring developments in the field of compliance, and monitoring and reporting compliance risks to the Board, the Control Committee and the Group Management

ü  Maintaining contact with the authorities that grant approvals

ü  Drawing up internal policies and ensuring that all employees know and apply the rules and regulations

ü  Organizing internal training

“Folkia is a young company with a strong customer focus and an ambitious plan for further growth,” says Magnus. “For me, this is a unique opportunity to build up a compliance function from scratch. For a finance company that is active in the consumer market in the Nordic countries and the Baltic region and is supervised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority, the Swedish Data Inspection Board, the Swedish Consumer Agency and the corresponding authorities in our other markets, this means virtually the entire operation. The foundation has been laid, but the task of creating and continuing to improve awareness of these issues within a broader perspective is an extremely inspiring prospect.”

Folkia is a Norwegian credit and finance company operating in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Estonia. The company was founded in 2006 and has experienced rapid growth. The company’s turnover was NOK 115 million in 2009 and it had approximately 150,000 customers. Folkia’s head office is situated in Oslo, though most of the approximately 35 staff are based at the office in Stockholm. The Folkia organisation includes divisions dealing with law, IT, marketing, communication and credit. The company has its own customer services with around ten staff. The company is planning to introduce a number of new services focusing on simplifying customers’ day-to-day finances. For more information, see folkia.no.