2nd UPDATE: Nordea: Madoff Exposure At EUR48 Million

Two of the Nordic region's biggest banks, Nordea Bank AB (NDA.SK) and Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE.KO), said they have EUR48 million and EUR10 million, respectively, in exposure to the alleged multi-billion-dollar fraud by the former Nasdaq Stock Market Chairman Bernard Madoff.

"For the entire group, we have EUR48 million in exposure, representing 0.2% of our life operation (business) which has assets over EUR25 billion," Nordea's spokeswoman Helena Ostman said.

She said the exposure is through a fund called Fairfield Sentry, and it remains unclear how much could be lost, she said.

"We are in talks with our attorneys to see how this will affect us," she added.

Meanwhile, Danske Bank's spokesman Jonas Sunn Torp said the group doesn't expect to lose any money as its exposure through Danske Leverage Fund is mainly tied to customers.

"We will do what we can to get our money back, although we don't know much about the case yet," he said. "Mostly, it's people from our private banking section who have invested in this fund. Danske group won't have any losses from this case."

Wall Street trader Madoff was arrested and charged with securities fraud Thursday in what federal prosecutors described as a Ponzi scheme that could involve losses of more than $50 billion.

European and Asian banks have revealed billions of dollars of exposure to Madoff's alleged Ponzi scheme, with clients of Spain's Banco Santander SA (STD) potentially facing some of the biggest losses.

Swedish rival Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB-A.SK) said it has no direct exposure to Madoff.

"There's nothing to indicate we have any exposure on behalf of our clients," SEB spokeswoman Elisabeth Lennhede said.

Norway's biggest banking group DnB NOR ASA (DNBNOR.OS) and Swedish lenders Svenska Handelsbanken AB (SHB-B.SK) and Swedbank AB (SWED-A.SK) all said they have no exposure to Madoff funds.

At 1401 GMT, shares in Nordea were up 1% at SEK59.60, while shares in Danske were up 0.4% at DKK60.75, outperforming the Stockholm index of the 40 largest listed companies, which was up 0.2%.

Company Web sites: www.nordea.com; www.sebgroup.com; www.danskebank.com; www.handelsbanken.com; www.swedbank.com; www.dnbnor.com

-By Anna Molin, Dow Jones Newswires; [phone]; [e-mail]

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