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摘要

It takes a brave financial regulator to wade into the morass of bank ownership reform. But that's exactly what Ulrik Nodgaard, directorgeneral of the Danish Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA), did earlier this year, when he called on Denmark's banks to get out of their ruts and speed up the consolidation process of the country's fragmented banking sector. Despite the serial upheavals of the stillunfolding financial crisis, bankers remain a territorially conservative bunch and Mr Nodgaard's foray into this sensitive arena drew a furious response - particularly from those smaller banks that have weathered the storm. Finansforbundet, the finance sector trade union, said in a withering comment that bank consolidation was best discussed behind closed doors and not in the public arena.