OREANDA-NEWS. December 13, 2011. Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency increased SEB Group’s long-term credit rating to the level A+ and gave the rating a stable outlook. In regards to this decision, Standard & Poor’s emphasized SEB’s strong market leader position in the Nordic Countries? capital markets and investment banking as well as the bank’s strong position in other fields of finance, such as asset management, life insurance, bank cards and home loans, reported the press-centre of SEB.

"The reliability of a financial partner is extremely important in the current uncertain economic environment. According to Standard & Poor’s assessment, the Swedish banking system is currently one of the strongest in the world and Estonia has the honour of being closely connected to this financial system, since Estonia is one of SEB’s home markets. Knowing that one of the leading banks in the market has a strong financial base adds confidence to the Estonian economy, enterprises and people," said Riho Unt, the Chairman of the Management Board of SEB Estonia.

"We are glad to see that our continuous work in recent years for securing the bank’s financial ground has been highly valued. As the leading financial bank in the Nordic Countries, our strong customer relations secures us stability in profit-making and asset quality, which in turn helps us to maintain a strong capital and liquidity position," added Jan Erik Back, SEB Group’s Chief Financial Officer.

Standard & Poor’s rating is based on the assessment of SEB’s business activity, capital and risk position, profit-making ability and financing possibilities as well as liquidity. The stable outlook of the rating reflects the expectations that SEB is capable of continuing a balanced development and maintaining its high capitalization, thanks to its extensive business activity.

Thus far, Standard & Poor’s long-term credit rating for SEB had been an A.

Yesterday, the global finance monthly magazine The Banker announced that it has named SEB the best bank in Estonia in the year 2011, awarding this title to SEB for the third time in a row, as the title was not awarded at all in 2009 and 2010.