ECB's Liikanen criticises Nordea's restructuring plan

HELSINKI (Reuters) - European Central Bank council member, Bank of Finland Governor Erkki Liikanen has criticised the plan by Nordea (NDA.ST), the Nordic region's biggest lender, to change its Finnish subsidiary bank into a branch.

Nordea, which is based in Sweden, in July announced a plan to simplify its legal structure and change all its Nordic subsidiary banks into branches. Finland is the only Nordic country that is a member of the euro.

"Nordea Bank Finland is systemically a very important player in the Finnish capital markets. From the macroprudential supervision as well as the central bank point of view, changing Nordea Bank Finland into a branch is not desirable," Liikanen told newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

"Responsibility for supervision and crisis management of a systemically important bank would move outside of the banking union's common mechanisms."

Finland's Financial Supervisory Authority has also criticised the plan. Nordea is Finland's second-biggest lender, with a market share of about 30 percent.

(This version of the story has been refiled to say banking union, not bank unionin, in fourth paragraph)

(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Hugh Lawson)