Swedbank exits retail segment in Ukraine

Swedbank has altered its strategy for the Ukrainian market and will exit the retail segment to focus solely on the corporate customers. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) September 20, 2011 - “The change is in line with our strategy to offer universal banking on our four home markets and have more focused offering in niche markets. Clearer focus will also enable us to improve Swedbank’s cost efficiency related to operations in non-home markets,” commented Swedbank’s CFO Göran Bronner.

The new strategy will be implemented during a two-year period, during which time existing retail operations will be gradually closed down and no new retail business is developed. One-off costs related to the transformation are estimated to be about SEK 100 million.

The bank will continue to serve corporate customers and improve its offering to this segment with the aim to transform the bank into an efficient and sustainable corporate bank.

The transformation process, starting as of today, is expected to be finalised by September 2013.

For further information, please contact:

Göran Bronner, CFO, Swedbank, phone: +46 8 585 906 67
Reiner Müller-Hanke, Head of Swedbank Ukraine, phone: +38 044 481 4893
Anna Sundblad, Press Manager, Swedbank, phone: +46 70 321 39 95

Swedbank promotes a sound and sustainable financial situation for the many people, households and companies. Our vision is to contribute to a development “Beyond Financial Growth”. As a leading bank in the home markets Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Swedbank offers a wide range of financial services and products. Swedbank has 9.4 million retail customers and around 650,000 corporate customers with 321 branches in Sweden and over 200 branches in the Baltic countries. The group is also present in other Nordic countries, the U.S., China, Russia and Ukraine. As of 30 June, 2011 the group had total assets of SEK 1,758 billion. Read more at www.swedbank.com

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