OREANDA-NEWS. On the 17th of March 2009 AS Hansapank will change its business name, the new operating name will be Swedbank AS. This move is the last phase in the brand changing process initiated last autumn. In Latvia the bank's new name will be Swedbank AS and in Lithuania "Swedbank" AB, reported the press-centre of Hansapank.

On 17 March the names of the bank's subsidiaries will also be changing, as follows:

AS Hansa Elukindlustus will be known as Swedbank Elukindlustus AS.

AS Hansa Investeerimisfondid will be known as Swedbank Investeerimisfondid AS.

AS Hansa Liising Eesti will be known as Swedbank Liising AS.

AS Hansa Varakindlustus will be known as Swedbank Varakindlustus AS.

Balti Autoliisingu AS will be known as Swedbank Autopargi Juhtimise AS.

For Swedbank's clients the business name change will not bring any additional obligations – all rights and obligations resulting from previous contracts will remain the same.

"Our business name renaming is part of Swedbank's name and brand change process which we initiated last autumn. Swedbank's new business name will not bring any changes to our customers or clients," said Erkki Raasuke, Head of Swedbank's Baltic banking. "We will continue to operate with the same business philosophy and values which have been the foundation of Swedbank Group's actions for severeal years. When Swedbank acquisitioned Hansapank, we decided jointly that values which brought success to Hansapank are suitable for the principles of the group which we were creating. Swedbank's brand change is part of our new positioning as an international bank in all of the markets in which we operate," added Raasuke.

Swedbank's brand change process was initiated on the 15th of September 2009. At first the bank's brand changed – meaning the bank logos were changed in the internet bank and local branches and products were started to be advertised under Swedbank's brand.

Swedbank's history reaches back to 1820, when Sweden's first savings bank was created in Goteborg. Currently the group is operating in several countrie,s including Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Spain, China, Japan and the Baltics. Swedbank Group employees over 22 000 persons. Swedbank Group altogether has over 9 million private customers and 0,5 million corporate clients in the home markets of Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Swedbank Group acquisitioned 100 percent of Hansapank's stocks in the spring of 2005. Swedbank's brand was created in 2006 in the co-operation of ForeningsSparbanken and Hansapank.