Swedbank to leave the state guarantee program

Press Release April 9, 2010

Swedbank to leave the state guarantee program

Swedbank's Board of Directors yesterday agreed that the bank will leave the
state guarantee program with immediate effect. The decision has been made
against the background of the improved funding market situation for banks, but
above all due to the fact that the bank has not used the state guarantee program
for its funding since July 2009.


“To achieve an independent funding was one of the main goals behind Swedbank's
rights issue in August 2009. Leaving the state guarantee program is one more
step in this direction. The fact that the bank can fund itself on its own is a
result of the support from the shareholders through the two rights issues, our
ongoing efforts to reduce the credit and liquidity risk levels as well as a
consequence of the market beginning to normalise,” said Michael Wolf, CEO of
Swedbank.

“Swedbank has through the state guarantee been able to fund itself on
competitive terms, also during the turbulent period from autumn 2008 to summer
2009. The guarantee has also implicitly benefitted all banks in Sweden and has
been an important precondition for allowing the Swedish banking system to stand
relatively strong during and after the financial crisis,” said Swedbank's
Chairman of the Board Lars Idermark.

Swedbank has since July 2009 borrowed SEK200 billion in long-term funding
outside of the state guarantee program. During the first quarter of 2010,
Swedbank borrowed SEK100 billion, representing two-thirds of the total amount of
long-term funding maturing in 2010.

The bank will have outstanding loans previously issued under the guarantee until
July 2014. Swedbank will, as soon as there is more clarity around the regulatory
framework regarding requirements on banks' liquidity, and should market
conditions allow it, strive to buy back the longest dated government guaranteed
debt.

Swedbank has borrowed a total of SEK421.2 billion under the state guarantee
since 2008, including SEK234.8 billion in short-term funding with maturities of
less than 12 months and SEK186.4 billion in long-term funding with maturities of
more than 12 months. Swedbank had, at the end of the fourth quarter 2009, SEK241
billion in outstanding loans. At the end of the first quarter 2010, the amount
of outstanding loans had declined to SEK201.5 billion. 

As of end-March, the maturity profile for the remaining debt was SEK39.6 billion
in 2010, SEK82.4 billion in 2011, SEK40.5 billion in 2012, SEK11.8 billion in
2013 and SEK27.2 billion in 2014. 

Swedbank had, at the end of the fourth quarter 2009, paid SEK1.852 billion in
fees for the state guarantee as well as SEK224 million in fees to the
government's stabilization fund.


Further information, please contact:
Michael Wolf, CEO and President, Swedbank, phone: +46 8 5859 00 00  
Jonas Eriksson, Head of Treasury, Swedbank, phone: +46 76 765 50 88  
Thomas Backteman, Head of Corporate Affairs, Swedbank, phone: +46 708 311 166
Anna Sundblad, Group Press Manager, Swedbank, phone: +46 70 321 39 95

Swedbank is the bank for the many people, households and companies. As a leading
bank in the home markets Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Swedbank offers
a wide range of financial services and products. Swedbank has 9.5 million retail
customers and 550,000 corporate customers with 381 branches in Sweden and 226
branches in the Baltic countries. The group is also present in other Nordic
countries, the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and Ukraine.  As of December 31 2009
the group had total assets of SEK 1,795 billion. 
Read more at www.swedbank.com