Swedbank terminating collaboration agreement with SpareBank 1-alliansen in Norway

Swedbank terminating collaboration agreement with SpareBank 1-alliansen in Norway In August of 1998, Swedbank and Sparebank 1-alliansen in Norway entered into a collaboration agreement to develop and distribute banking and financial services in Norway and Sweden. Because of that agreement, Swedbank acquired 25% of SpareBank 1 Gruppen AS. The parties have since established collaboration in a number of areas, including syndication of corporate financing, fund sales and Internet banking. However, Swedbank now feels that the forms of the parties' collaboration need to be modernised to make further development possible. "We want to improve our efficacy in the Norwegian marketplace. Accordingly, because of certain limitations in our now-three-year-old collaboration agreement, we have elected to serve formal notice of the termination of that agreement," comments Annika Wijkström, Swedbank Executive Vice President and Head of the bank's Alliances Division. "However, our intention is to deepen a long-term collaboration." The term of notice for the termination is one year. For further information: Annika Wijkström, Swedbank Executive Vice President, Head of Alliances Division, phone: +46 708 788 785 Staffan Salén, Swedbank Executive Vice President, Head of Information and Investor Relations, phone +46 8 5859 2779 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/12/17/20011217BIT00890/bit0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/12/17/20011217BIT00890/bit0001.pdf