Hansa Leasing provisions EUR 12.3 million

Hansa Leasing, the subsidiary of Hansabank and fully owned by Swedbank, provisions EUR 12.3 million (SEK 113.5 million) for the second quarter, 2006. This provision reflects the results of an investigation of the Russian Tax Service into the handling of VAT related to sale lease-back transactions. During the first quarter, Hansa Leasing provisioned EUR 3.1 million related to the same VAT issue. Until a final decision by the Russian authorities has been made, Hansa Leasing has stopped all new leasing activities, which however does not affect the Group´s banking business in Russia. During the first quarter this year, Hansabank opened a branch office in St. Petersburg and will open a branch office in Kaliningrad in August this year. For further information: Erkki Raasuke, Head of Baltic Banking and CEO Hansabank, phone +372 613 1372 Henrik Kolga, Head of Communication Swedbank, phone +46 708 11 13 15 FöreningsSparbanken (Swedbank) is a leading Nordic-Baltic banking group with 8.8 million retail customers and 441,000 corporate customers in Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. In Sweden the group has more than 470 branches. In the Baltic countries the group has another 280 branches. Outside of the Nordic-Baltic home markets, the group is present in Copenhagen, Helsinki, Kaliningrad, Luxembourg, Moscow, New York, Oslo, Shanghai, St.Petersburg and Tokyo. As of December 2005, the group had total assets of SEK 1,200 billion and approximately 16,000 employees. For more information about FöreningsSparbanken, please visit http://www.swedbank.com.