BRUSSELS, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- The European Union (EU) approved on Tuesday the proposed acquisition of Sampo Bank plc, a Finnish banking and investment services provider, by the Danish financial services company Danske Bank A/S.

    The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said that the activities of the two banks are to a large extent complementary and the transaction "would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area or any substantial part of it."

    The European Economic Area covers Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and the 27 EU member states.

    There are no overlaps between Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark, and Sampo Bank, a fully-owned subsidiary of Finnish insurance company Sampo plc, in the retail banking sector as they are active in different national markets, the commission said in a statement.

    In corporate banking services, the new entity after the takeover would continue to face effective competition from other large corporate banks, in particular Nordea, OP Bank Group and Svenska Handelsbanken, the commission said.

    The banks' activities in financial market services are also to a large extent complementary and the transaction would not lead to any competition concerns, it said.

    Sampo Bank, based in Helsinki, is the third-largest bank in Finland with 12,000 staff. It has units in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and a recently acquired bank in Russia.

    Danske has only minimal operations in Finland and no presence in Baltic countries. It has 19,000 employees in Europe, mostly in the Nordic region.