Moody's, one of the world's leading credit rating agencies, upgraded Handelsbanken as part of its broader review of banks in the Nordic region and Europe. The Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) of Svenska Handelsbanken AB has been raised to A1 from A2.

The upgraded rating reflects the bank's strong, long-term credit profile, characterised by low risk tolerance and robust capitalisation.
The Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) is Moody's assessment of a bank's intrinsic financial strength - that is, its ability to withstand stress without reliance on government support or other extraordinary measures.

Highest rating
No other privately owned bank in the world has a higher combined credit rating based on ratings from Moody's, Fitch and Standard & Poor's.
"This view has once again been confirmed and further strengthened by Moody's. It places the Bank in a very exclusive group, consisting of only a small handful of privately owned banks worldwide with the highest BCA rating according to Moody's", says Michael Green, President and CEO of Handelsbanken.

Moody's assessment is the latest in a series of international accolades acknowledging the Bank's stability. In October, Handelsbanken was once again named Europe's Safest Commercial Bank and the world's fifth safest commercial bank by the independent magazine Global Finance.

"The upgrade of the BCA and Adjusted BCA reflects the bank's exemplary governance and conservative risk management strategy over a very long period of time, which has translated into very low credit losses throughout numerous credit cycles. Handelsbanken's asset quality metrics are consistently stronger than its peer group of large Nordic issuers and its solvency position also compares favourably against other universal banks in Europe", Moody's writes.

For more information on Moody's ratings, see here.
For more information regarding Europes Safest Commercial Bank, see here.

For further information, please contact:
Handelsbanken Press Office, +46 8 701 80 18

For more information about Handelsbanken, see: www.handelsbanken.com