Swedbank signs acquiring agreement in Finland

Swedbank* has signed an acquiring agreement with S Group** (SOK), Finland’s largest retailing cooperation.  The agreement makes Swedbank the acquiring bank for a large number of stores in Finland

“We are very happy and satisfied over the agreement with S Group that becomes a strong and dynamic long term strategic partner. Through the agreement we get a perfect platform for further expansion into Finland and the opportunity to gain new customers and serve our existing customers in this market”, says Erik Cyrus, Head of Group Cards at Swedbank.

“We regularly look over our service providers. The agreement with Swedbank gives us a much cost effective solution that also the cooperative will benefit from. We also look forward to the possibilities the cooperation with such a large service provider of payment services will bring in the aspect of the continuous development and new solutions within the payment area”, says treasurer Juha Ahola from S Group

Swedbank is the fifth largest acquirer in Europe and a market leader in the Nordic and Baltic region with local presence in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Baltic countries. Swedbank is a full range provider of acquiring services and have more than 35 years’ experience of card processing. The bank has had a leading role during the setup and development of card payments in Sweden.

*Swedbank
Swedbank is a modern bank firmly rooted in Swedish savings bank history. We are an inclusive bank with 8 million private customers and more than 600 000 corporate and organisational customers. This makes us Sweden’s largest bank in terms of number of customers and gives us a leading position in our other home markets of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

**S Group
S Group is the market leader in the grocery trade in Finland with a market share of approx. 46 per cent. It operates also in the consumer and durable goods trade, the service station store and fuel trade, the travel industry and hospitability business. S Group comprises of 20 independent regional and eight local cooperatives, in addition to SOK, the Helsinki-based central co-operative. S Group employs 42 000 service sector professionals and it has over 1,600 outlets in Finland, Russia and the Baltics.

For further information:
Mikael Lundqvist, Head of Corporate CRM, Swedbank, phone: +46 (0) 70-578 25 95
Anna Sundblad, Press Officer, Swedbank, phone: +46 (0) 70-321 39 95
Juha Ahola, Treasurer, S Group, phone +358 10 76 82047

Swedbank promotes a sound and sustainable financial situation for the many people, households and companies. Our vision is to contribute to development “Beyond Financial Growth”. As a leading bank in the home markets of Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Swedbank offers a wide range of financial services and products. Swedbank has over 8 million retail customers and around 600 000 corporate customers and organisations with 314 branches in Sweden and 156 branches in the Baltic countries. The group is also present in other Nordic countries, the US and China. As of 31 December 2014 the group had total assets of SEK 2 121 billion. Read more at www.swedbank.com

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