SEB suspends market launch of e-banking in UK

SEB suspends market launch of e-banking in UK Will continue to develop b2b-solutions and offer SEB's e-banking model to financial institutions SEB has decided to suspend the marketing launch of a stand-alone e-banking venture in the UK. Earlier plans included a marketing launch in spring for the combined e-banking and e-brokerage site that just opened. "The market conditions have deteriorated substantially," says Fleming Carlborg, Head of Personal Banking International within SEB. "With the prevailing stock market situation, we have chosen to concentrate our resources on markets in which we already have broader activities. "Our experience from other markets shows that e-banking functions best as a component of a multi-channel strategy based on an existing customer base," continues Fleming Carlborg. The decision affects personnel in the marketing, customer service and sales areas. However, certain development projects will continue for b2b- solutions where SEB will offer e-banking and e-brokerage services to other corporations and financial institutions. One such co-operation was announced in February, eAsiaFinance, which is a joint venture between SEB, Ankar Capital Management, Tata Consultancy Services and Compass ventures. The aim is to supply Asian corporate customers with the technical platform for e-banking and e-brokerage solutions. SEB is a European financial group especially for corporations and financially active private individuals. SEB has 630 branch offices in Sweden, Germany and the Baltic States, with 4 million customers in total. Of these, 850,000 are Internet customers. SEB also has operations in the rest of the Nordic countries, Great Britain, Luxembourg and Switzerland. The balance sheet total is SEK 1,123 billion and assets under management amount to SEK 910 billion. The number of employees amount to 21,500. SEB announced the proposal in February to merge with FöreningsSparbanken. The merger is expected to be implemented in the third quarter of 2001, asssuming regulatory approval. Read more about SEB: www.seb.net For further information, please contact: Fleming Carlborg, Head of Personal Banking International, +46 8 763 7164, +46 70 591 1913 Gunilla Wikman, Head of Group Communications, +46 8 763 8125, +46 70 763 8125 Boo Ehlin, Corporate Press Manager, +46 8 763 8577, +46 70 763 8577 Lotta Treschow, Head of Investor Relations, +46 8 763 9559 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/21/20010321BIT00860/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/03/21/20010321BIT00860/bit0002.pdf