Svenska Handelsbanken

Consistency, both in terms of a strong performance and a high degree of customer satisfaction, is what makes Svenska Handelsbanken the best bank in Sweden for the second year running.

Despite a tough year in 2002, Handelsbanken achieved a ROE of 15.1% – the highest return among Scandinavian banks for the sixth consecutive year. It reduced its cost-to-income ratio of 47.7%, which was the lowest among Europe’s largest universal banks.

Last year Handelsbanken became the first Swedish financial institution to demutualise its life insurance arm, Handelsbanken Liv, providing the insurer’s customers with more freedom, security and fairness.

Thanks to its technology, all the bank’s customers can perform nearly all their banking transactions on the internet. More than 50% of its corporate customers and more than 30% of its private customers are taking advantage of the service.

On the expansion front, Handelsbanken completed the integration of Denmark’s Midbank, which it acquired in 2001, and opened five new branches in the UK, four of which are already in profit.

CEO Lars O Grönstedt said: “Handelsbanken has received this award for three consecutive years. We see it as an acknowledgement of our continuous striving to deliver the best service possible to our customers. We are already in the position of having the most satisfied customers in Sweden and maintaining a profitability gap against all other Nordic banks. Running the bank in a decentralised fashion, with the branches being the drivers of the business, has proven successful.

“Last year we succeeded in demutualising our insurance subsidiary Handelsbanken Liv and it is now a consolidated entity within the Handelsbanken group. This was the first life insurance company ever to be demutualised in Sweden,” he said.

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