Swedbank given green light to resume Russian operations

Press Release September 5, 2007

Swedbank given green light to resume Russian operations

The Bank of Russia has now announced their decision to let Swedbank resume its
operations in Russia at full scale.  

“We are very pleased with the decision and are ready to resume operations. We
have taken the measures the central bank has asked of us. Our long-term strategy
has not changed and we consider Russia as an important growth market for
Swedbank Group,” says Swedbank President and CEO Jan Lidén. 

On June 6 of this year the Russian central bank decided to restrict portions of
Swedbank's operations in Russia for a period of three months. The central bank
suggested that Swedbank may have violated federal laws and the normative acts of
the Russian central bank on prevention of illicitly acquired funds.

Swedbank currently has branch offices in Moscow, Kaliningrad and St Petersburg,
305 employees and approximately SEK 8 billion in outstanding lending in Russia.


For further information, please contact:
Jan Lidén, President and CEO, Swedbank, telephone: +46 8 585 922 27
Erkki Raasuke, Head of Baltic Banking, Swedbank, telephone: +372 888 1472
Johannes Rudbeck, Head of Investor Relations, Swedbank, telephone: +46 70 582 56
56
Anna Sundblad, Press Manager, Swedbank, telephone: +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 million retail customers and 500,000
corporate customers with more than 470 branches in Sweden, 290 branches in the
Baltic countries and another 190 branches in Ukraine. The group is also present
in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Luxembourg, Marbella, Moscow, New York,
Oslo, Shanghai, St. Petersburg and Tokyo. As of December 2006 the group had
total assets of SEK 1,400 billion and approximately 17,000 employees. For more
information about Swedbank, please visit www.swedbank.com.