The EU-US Data party is on again

Danske Bank exit the Norwegian market

Right before we went on vacation, Danske Bank announced that they would exit the private market in Norway. Now they have announced that Nordea is the buyer and takes over approximately 285 000 customers. The sale, which includes relevant investment products, is expected to be finally completed in the second quarter of 2025 at the latest. That is if the Norwegian competition authorities approve the sale. With this sale, Nordea will go from 11 percent of the Norwegian market to 16 percent.

Meanwhile, Monzo is reportedly in talks to merge with Nordic rival Lunar. A proposed agreement would significantly increase the presence of both challenger banks across Europe. Lunar has 650,000 users in Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, and Monzo has 7.5 million customers in the UK.

Stacc expands mortgage loan initiative to Sweden

Staccs' Swedish expansion continues with our recent acquisition of StoEr Technologies AB, a Swedish Fintech company based in Stockholm. This marks our second acquisition in Sweden and reinforces our focus on digitizing the mortgage journey. StoEr has spent years developing a fully automated platform for credit processing and mortgage distribution. They have established a strong foothold in the Swedish mortgage market, thanks to Söderberg & Partners as a customer and majority owner.

The EU-US Data party is on again

Picture the internet as a wild party and data as guests. European data has been finding it hard to swing by parties hosted in the US for the last few years. Well, not anymore! The EU and USA joined hands, worked some magic, and created a whole, shiny new framework that makes it easier for European data to party in the US. This framework got the green light on July 10th and had folks dancing on day one.

If the US company you are transferring data to is on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework list, you can transfer data without any new paperwork or additional security measures. It's like having your name on the guest list of a club. Currently known companies like MongoDB Inc, Microsoft, and Hubspot are on the list. The same rules as before apply for businesses not on the list.

As always, GDPR rules are the trusty dress code that still applies, despite the new framework. This means that data processing agreements and risk assessments are still part of the safety dance.

In essence: Some European data is now free to mingle with more confidence on US turf, but it's good to be prepared for any sudden changes in the data protection landscape due to the legality of the tools now switching on and off like a fickle light switch.

Data visualization crimes

Eivind Berg has written an interesting blog post on different forms of data visualization crimes you should look for. He has also tried to describe what is an exemplary graph. Some of his key takeaways:

• The graph should be readable and easy to interpret.

• Everything should be described. You should not have to wonder what the X-axis or Y-axis means. The graph should have a descriptive title.

• The colors used should be appropriate.

• Use the right type of graph for the purpose.

• Be cautious with pie charts. It's harder to interpret angles than bars.

• Be honest: Use the correct X and Y axes.

Eivinds favorite-graph? A good Sankey diagram:

Invisible Details of Interaction Design

If there is just one piece you should read (watch?) from this issue, it is this article from Rauno Freiberg on Invisible details of Interaction design. Here, Rauno delves deep into the why behind great displays of interaction design. If you liked this, you'll also enjoy Raunos' non-exhaustive list of details that make a good (web) interface.