Svenska Handelsbanken

Business Bank of the Year 2011

Handelsbanken was acclaimed Business Bank of the Year 2011 in Finansbarometern’s annual survey. The Bank received the highest rating any bank has achieved during the nine years the survey has been conducted.

Handelsbanken’s rating was 4.6 on the five-point scale, where assessments such as customer satisfaction, electronic services, quality of advisory services, price, service level and range of services and products were taken into account.

Handelsbanken is the bank which has changed its rating the most, climbing by 0.6 points. Our increase was the same from 2009 to 2010 according to the finance barometers for those years. For the other banks, this year’s changes are less, both up and down.

Handelsbanken has come in top position thanks to the area where we perform best – customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the factor with the highest weighting in the overall assessment. The various parameters are weighted by how important the companies responding to the survey think they are. In addition to customer satisfaction, Handelsbanken is number one for service.

Finansbarometern is a survey among 1,777 companies of varying sizes with more than 200 employees and over SEK 250 million in sales.

What is sustainability for Handelsbanken?

Definition In addition to its financial goal of having higher profitability than its competitors in its home markets, Handelsbanken aims to act as a responsible institution. It is therefore natural for the Bank to work with the questions of sustainability that often fall within the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). For Handelsbanken, Corporate Social Responsibility is a voluntary responsibility for how the Bank’s operations affect the community from an economic, social, ethical and environmental perspective. Our analysis of the impact of our operations Taking responsibility is a vital element of a successful and sustainable banking operation. Handelsbanken has a great financial responsibility for the funds that the Bank is entrusted to manage. In addition, in the Bank’s view, it has a responsibility for the environment – for acting socially and ethically in relation to all its stakeholders. Different sectors have larger or smaller impacts within the various areas of responsibility. A bank’s direct environmental impact is fairly limited, even though Handelsbanken endeavours to minimise the carbon dioxide emissions, etc. generated by our operations. In terms of indirect environmental impact, it is Handelsbanken’s assessment that the Bank’s ability to influence customers’ actions is very limited. However, generally banks have heavy exposure to social risks. Therefore, a bank has greater opportunities to make a difference when it comes to social and civic responsibility, particularly in its role as a lender. A loan loss often conceals a personal tragedy for a customer. Therefore, it is important that the Bank’s lending is responsible.