Development on the agenda

With almost 30 years of experience in the Finnish finance and IT sectors, Pekka Virtanen has a valuable network. Now he is going to take Crosskey’s solutions for the capital market to the next level. And he is looking forward to an exciting challenge.

[sectionheader]Pekka Virtanen, Department Manager, Capital Market[/sectionheader]

“We are a Scandinavian provider, but at the same time we have to have a strong local presence. It is not just a question of modifying products to suit the different countries in Scandinavia, but also a question of speaking “Standard Swedish” in Stockholm as well as knowing what is happening outside of the financial markets in Sweden and Finland”, says Pekka Virtanen, the new Director for Capital Market.

Developed eQ Bank
Mr Virtanen began working at the eQ company group in 1997. As CTO and later CEO, he was responsible for developing IT operations from the ground up.

“We were the first Internet brokers in Finland that allowed trading directly with the Helsinki Stock Exchange and later, stock exchanges throughout the world.”

Great potential
Many are acquainted with the fact that Straumur acquired eQ Bank in 2007. Two years later, the Icelandic operations went bankrupt. Then Nordnet got into the act and acquired the eQ company group. Winding up operations became Mr Virtanen’s priority, and he finally completed his task at the end of June. After a holiday in July, Mr Virtanen became available for new assignments in August of this year.

“I met with many interesting companies. What attracted me most to Crosskey was its great potential. Crosskey stands for innovation, and I am looking forward to working with the development of operations instead of winding them up.”

Read more about Pekka Virtanen at LinkedIn.