• Startpage
• 2007 in brief
• This is Swedbank
• Letter from the Chair
• President's statement
• Vision and strategy
• Market shares Sweden
• Market shares Baltic region
• Five-year summary
• Business areas
• Employees
• Sustainable development
• The share and owners
• Board of Directors' report
• Board of Directors and Group Executive Management
• Corporate governance report
• Distribution of earnings
• Annual General Meeting

• Addresses
• Contacts
• Definitions

International growth

Swedbank is growing from primarily a Swedish bank to an international banking group with Swedish roots. A growing share of our earnings comes from emerging markets.

Swedbank has four countries as its home markets, Sweden represents a stable base in our operations. At the same time Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia account for a growing share of the group’s profit. Russia and Ukraine will, long term, provide a significant contribution to Swedbank’s earnings.

Successful model for further international expansion

Our customer offering is based on competitive products and services that are easy to understand and use. Together with the best service, whether customers contact us through our many branches, by telephone or online, we have established a model for successful banking in each country. Expansion means that more customers can benefit from our collective expertise and product range.

Well positioned for European regulation

The EU’s initiatives to increase customer mobility and cross-border competition will continue to impact the banking structure in the EU and neighboring banking markets such as Russia and Ukraine. We are well positioned both with regards to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID), which governs securities trading in the EU and ESS, and the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which creates a standardized European payment market.

Strengthening positions in Sweden

We generated more business from customers in all our markets in 2007. In Sweden, we are the market leader in many large customer segments and important product areas. We will try to further strengthen our positions here while also focusing on growth areas where we are not yet the market leader.

Good long-term prospects in the Baltics

In Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, we continue to generate more business from our customers. While the strong growth of recent years has led to economic imbalances, we remain optimistic that economic growth will exceed the EU average over the long term.

Ukraine important to future growth

Through Swedbank in the Ukraine, we are now one of the 15 largest banks in the country. The Ukrainian banking market is still in its infancy, but substantial growth is expected to continue for many years to come.

Customers benefit from our presence in other markets

Our presence in Russia, the rest of the Nordic region and Europe, North America, Japan and China positively contributes to our earnings while providing concrete value to customers.

Few decision-making levels improves efficiency

To be successful, growth must be managed carefully to ensure shareholder value and profitability through efficiency and competent risk management. We encourage decentralized decision-making and work systematically to identify and capitalize on the economies of scale that a large organization generates.

I would like to express my gratitude to the bank’s more than 23,000 employees for their fine efforts and the success we achieved together in the past year.

 

Stockholm, March 2008

Jan Lidén
President and CEO
jan.liden@swedbank.se