Swedbank

Swedbank is a banking group offering a variety of financial products and services and can trace its history back to 1820, when the first Swedish savings bank was founded in Gothenburg. The bank would then create a new type of savings bank through the formation of county savings banks in Skaraborg and Jämtland. By 1875, there would be over 300 savings banks in operation. In 1900, the Swedish savings bank association is formed with the primary goal of establishing a forum where “savings bank representatives could meet, discuss and take decisions on common issues.” The various banks, all acting independently, would continue to grow and expand their presences in the following decades. The current Swedbank’s formation began in 1992, when various local savings banks merged together to form the Savings Bank Sweden, or simply The Savings Bank. This entity would become listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1995 and would merge with the Föreningsbanken two years later in 1997, forming FöreningsSparbanken. FöreningsSparbanken would expand its presence through a variety of acquisitions including Denmark’s FIH, Hansabank, which had just recently merged with Eesti Houipank and would become fully acquired in 2005, and First Securities. FöreningsSparbanken would decide to change its name officially to Swedbank, with its subsidiaries AB Spintab and Föreningssparbanken Jordbrukskredit AB following the change and becoming Swedbank Mortgage AB and Swedbank Jordbrukskredit AB, and others following suit. Since then Swedbank has follows with global trends, with its mobile bank reaching over 1 million clients by 2012. Swedbank currently has over 14,500 employees serving over 8 million private customers and half a million corporate customers with leading positions in Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and with additional operations in Norway, Finland, Denmark, United States, China, Luxembourg, and South Africa. The majority of its total income comes from retail banking, which alone makes up over half of its total, with others coming from LC&I, Baltic Banking, and Group Functions & Other. The company offers asset management services through Swedbank Investeerimisfondid, including funds such as its Eastern Europe Equity Fund and Swedbank Russian Equity Fund.