Hansabank’s new name will be Swedbank
2008-09-16 Back
"Change of name will not bring along any essential changes for our clients or employees. We’ve always wanted to be the best bank in the Baltics and all our decisions, including becoming part of with Swedbank Group, have been serving this purpose. Despite the name change we still aim to be market leader and the best employer," said Erkki Raasuke, Swedbank Group’s Baltic banking CEO. "We still do business based on the same business philosophy and values that have guided Swedbank Group for several years now."
According to Jan Lidén, leader of Swedbank Group, Baltics are an important area for Swedbank despite the cooling down of economy. „We aim to do business in the Baltics successfully also further in the future,” he said. „Swedbank Group has long-term experiences of doing business in different phases of economy cycle, so we’re not intimidated by the current economic situation in the Baltics – we know how to manage well in these circumstances. The core of Swedbank’s brand is service leadership – our main aim is to provide best service on the markets we operate at.”
The change will not bring along any extra duties for the clients – all agreements, also rights and obligations based on those will remain as they are today. The name change will be carried out during one year. For first the brand of bank will change – it means that in the coming months banks’s name will change in the internet, signs on bank’s offices will be changed and bank’s products will be advertised under the name of Swedbank. Legal name of the bank will change in spring 2009. „Changing the name of such a big organization is a process, where many aspects need to be taken into account. First and foremost we bear in mind the interests of clients – the bank must stand strong and offer best service also during the process of name change That is why we decided to carry our our name change during a year – we do it step by step,” Erkki Raasuke commented on the process to be started today.
The history of Swedbank Group dates back to year 1820 with the establishment of Sweden’s first savings bank in Gothenburg. Today the banking group operates in a large variety of international markets including Sweden, Baltics, Russia, Ukraine, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Spain, US, China, and Japan. It has more than 22,000 employees and serves a total of around 9 million private customers and 500,000 corporate customers in its home markets of Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Swedbank Group purchased 100% of Hansabank stocks in spring 2005. The brand of Swedbank was created in the cooperation of FöreningsSparbanken and Hansabank in 2006.
