STOCKHOLM –

Nordea has joined forces with the two other Nordic banks, SEB and Swedbank, to set up an education support programme for students at Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. The donation of 1.8 million euros (15 million SEK) is one of the largest in the university’s history, and it enables 720 scholarships to be granted to students from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia over a period of five years. For the students this means a reduction of their annual SSE Riga tuition fees from EUR 6,000 to EUR 3,500.

- We are proud to be part of this study programme and to contribute to the future success of hundreds of young Baltic people, says Valdis Siksnis, Head of Segments Poland and Baltic countries in Nordea.

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As many analyst’s predicted, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank is ready to take additional action if needed to boost the economy, after leaving its policy unchanged today.

“We remain prepared to do more as needed to make sure that this recovery continues and that inflation stays close to target,” he said at a press conference following a meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in Washington.

The Fed’s policy panel reiterated its expectation that rates would not rise until late 2014 at the earliest. It took no action to change monetary policy now.

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