Nordea Bank AB provides corporate merchant, retail, and private banking products and services in the Nordic and Baltic Sea region. The company offers various bank-to-bank services, including accounts, payments, and clearing services in various currencies; trade finance services, such as advising on hedging, market conditions, finance practice, and routines for document processing in export and import transactions; export finance services, including short-term discounting of receivables, forfeiting, export credit agency backed export credits, supplier and buyer credits, and leasing and structured export finance; project finance services that arrange financing and guarantee packages for large-scale projects, such as power plants, pulp mills, and telecommunication networks; inter-bank trading activities; custody services; and investment funds and management services. It also provides cash management services; and corporate finance services, including financial advice in connection with equity issues, initial public offerings, privatizations, and merger and acquisition transactions. In addition, the company offers life insurance and pensions products; individual private banking services to personal customers and medium-sized institutions; risk management services; and securities services. As of December 31, 2009, it operated approximately 1,400 branches and call centers. The company was founded in 1820 and is based in Stockholm, Sweden.