Nordea’s market capitalization evaporated by nearly DKK 12 billion on Thursday after a mistaken headline on Bloomberg terminals triggered a wave of automated selling.
The financial data provider erroneously reported that the Nordic bank had announced a share buyback program, a claim that was quickly retracted but not before algorithms and traders had reacted to the signal.
The bank’s fundamentals remain unchanged, with the lender having recently reported first-half profits that exceeded market expectations and declared a dividend of €0.
The incident underscores the vulnerability of modern equity markets to data errors, where high-frequency trading systems execute orders based on headlines before human verification can occur.
Nordea shares fell sharply in the session as the false narrative spread through trading desks across Europe.
The bank’s fundamentals remain unchanged, with the lender having recently reported first-half profits that exceeded market expectations and declared a dividend of €0.34 per share.
Bloomberg has acknowledged the error, which originated from a misinterpretation of internal data feeds.