SEB's bank in Lithuania now has 30,000 e-bank customers

SEB's bank in Lithuania now has 30,000 e-bank customers Vilniuas Bankas triples number of customers in six months SEB's wholly owned Lithuanian bank, Vilniuas Bankas, started its e-bank, VB Internet@s, in September 2000, with the aim of having 3,000 customers by year-end 2000. The bank acquired 11,262 customers and, since the beginning of this year, the number of e-bank customers has tripled to a total of 30,000 in July 2001. The goal for full-year 2001 was to have 30,000 customers, a figure that has now been achieved in half the time. This means that 10 percent of Vilniuas Bankas' total number of customers are e-bank customers. Approximately 80 percent are private customers and 20 percent consists of small and medium-size companies that conduct their banking via the Net. Today, Lithuanian customers use Vilniuas Bankas e-bank primarily to pay bills, check their accounts and to transfer money between accounts. During this year, Vilniuas Bankas also anticipates being able to offer its customers the possibility of applying for consumer loans, mortgage loans, share-trading and management of all their home-related bills via the Net. SEB owns three Baltic banks; Eesti Ühispank with 390,000 customers, 70,000 e-bank customers and 64 branches in Estonia, Latvijas Unibanka with 318,600 customers, 27,000 e-bank customers and 70 branches in Latvia, and Vilniuas Bankas with 280,000 customers, 30,000 e-bank customers and 57 branches in Lithuania. SEB owns 32 percent of the shares in the Polish bank Bank Ochrony Srodowiska, BOS. SEB is a European financial group, primarily for companies and financially active private individuals. SEB has 630 branches in Sweden, Germany and the Baltic States, with a total of 4 million customers. Of these, 900,000 are Internet customers. SEB also has operations in the other Nordic countries, the UK, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The Group's total assets are SEK 1,123 billion and managed capital amounts to SEK 910 billion. The number of employees totals 21,500. Read more about SEB at www.seb.se For further information, please contact: Boo Ehlin, Corporate Press Manager SEB, tel.+46 8 763 85 77, +46 70 763 85 77 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/07/30/20010727BIT00310/bit0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2001/07/30/20010727BIT00310/bit0001.pdf