Swedbank has been granted permission to use IRB in Swedbank Finans

Press Release 26th June 2009

Swedbank has been granted permission to use IRB in Swedbank Finans

The Swedish financial supervisory authority (Finansinspektionen) has granted
Swedbank permission to use the internal ratings-based (IRB) approach in its
calculation of risk-weighted assets in Swedbank Finans AB (publ) and ML Rental
AB (jointly called Swedbank Finans), as from June 30, 2009. 

Swedbank Finans' lending constitutes about 2.5% of the Group's total lending,
and therefore the implementation of the IRB approach in Swedbank Finans will
marginally reduce the Group's capital requirements. In the calibration of the
IRB system, Swedbank has chosen a conservative approach and the average IRB risk
weight of Swedbank Finans' portfolio will be approximately 75% of the risk
weight in the former used standardised approach. 

The IRB approach will be applied to about 96% of Swedbank Finans' total credit
risk exposure. The risk-weighted assets for the remaining part - consisting
mainly of exposures to sovereigns and other public sector entities as well as
non-profit organisations - are calculated in accordance with the standardised
approach. 

The use of the IRB approach in Swedbank Finans means that the Swedbank Group's
Tier 1 capital ratio and total capital adequacy ratio strengthens pro forma by
about 10 bp as of 31 March 2009, based on fully implemented Basel 2 rules.


Further information, please contact:
Johannes Rudbeck, Head of Investor Relations, Swedbank, phone: +46 70 582 56 56
Anna Sundblad, Press Manager, Swedbank, phone: +46 70 321 39 95

Swedbank's vision is to be the leading financial institution in the markets
where we are present. Swedbank has 9.4 million retail customers and 600,000
corporate customers with 419 branches in Sweden, 278 branches in the Baltic
countries and another 215 branches in Ukraine. The group is also present in
Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Luxembourg, Moscow, New York, Oslo, Shanghai,
St. Petersburg and Tokyo. As of December 2008 the group had total assets of SEK
1,812 billion and approximately 21,000 employees. For more information about
Swedbank, please visit www.swedbank.com.