Another regional bank in Great Britain

Handelsbanken is expanding substantially in Great Britain. In 2007,
the Bank expects a 50% increase in the number of branches."We have stepped up the pace of opening new branches. We have tripled
the number of new branches compared to previous years. We are now so
large and growing so quickly that we have decided to start up another
regional bank in Great Britain," says Magnus Uggla, head of the
regional bank in London.

Each branch of Handelsbanken is linked to a regional bank with joint
administrative resources, regional expertise and specialists to
support the branch's business. In Sweden, there are seven regional
banks. Norway, Denmark and Finland each have a regional bank. Great
Britain will now have its second regional bank."We started opening branches in Great Britain in 2000, and by 2002
we were already large enough to form a regional bank. Until last
year, we grew by some five new branches a year. This year, we expect
to open at least 15 branches, bringing us to over 40 branches by the
end of the year," adds Magnus Uggla.
  Thus there are good reasons to start a second regional bank in
Great Britain according to Mr Uggla:"We foresee this strong growth continuing: we are doing more
business and acquiring more and more new customers. Our decentralised
business model attracts customers as well as prospective staff in the
UK. This is why we have moved up a gear - a new regional bank allows
us to retain our rate of growth, to offer excellent support to our
existing branches; and at the same time open new ones."
   The new regional bank will be responsible for the northern part of
Great Britain. The head of the new regional bank will be Anders
Bouvin, currently head of Regional Bank Denmark. He takes up this
position on 1 July.

For further information, please contact:
Pär Boman, CEO, +46 8 22 92 20
Johan Lagerström, press officer, +46 8 701 13 95, mobile: +46 70 265
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