Handelsbanken has highest rankings for quality and customer satisfaction of the major banks in Sweden

Handelsbanken has highest rankings for quality and customer satisfaction of the major banks in Sweden Svenskt Kvalitetsindex is a system for measuring and analysing how actual customers and other users rate goods and services in Sweden. Regular measurements of customer satisfaction and quality development have been carried out since 1989 by a consortium consisting of the Swedish Institute for Quality, Statistics Sweden and two research institutions: the Stockholm School of Economics and the Service Research Centre at the University of Karlstad. The customer satisfaction index has values between 0 and 100. The higher the value, the better the assessment by actual customers that products and suppliers meet with the consumer's demands and expectations. Earlier this week, Svenskt Kvalitetsindex presented the result of this year's survey. This showed that Handelsbanken was regarded as the best of the major banks by both corporate and private customers. Among private customers, Handelsbanken achieved 70 as its index figure, which is three units higher than the previous year. The corresponding figure among corporate customers was 67 with the three other major banks two, four and six units lower than Handelsbanken's index figure. Handelsbanken has good customer satisfaction figures compared to the figures which Svenskt Kvalitetsindex simultaneously reported for a number of other sectors such as non-life insurance, life insurance, everyday commodities and fixed and mobile telephony. Handelsbanken's values are, with one exception, higher than the highest values measured by Svenskt Kvalitetsindex in each sector. Quality is a central issue for Handelsbanken. The Bank's corporate objective is to have higher return on shareholders' equity compared to the other Nordic banks. This is to be achieved by Handelsbanken providing its customers with better service than other banks, and at lower costs for the Bank. For this reason the Bank actively monitors various measures of the service level in the banking sector. For further information please contact: Bengt Ragnå, Head of Investor Relations, tel: +46 8 701 1216 or Lars Lindmark, Head of Corporate Commuications, tel: +46 8 701 1036 ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by BIT http://www.bit.se The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/11/23/20001123BIT00560/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/11/23/20001123BIT00560/bit0002.pdf