Press Release April 9, 2010

Swedbank to leave the state guarantee program

Swedbank's Board of Directors yesterday agreed that the bank will leave
the state guarantee program with immediate effect. The decision has been
made against the background of the improved funding market situation for
banks, but above all due to the fact that the bank has not used the
state guarantee program for its funding since July 2009.

"To achieve an independent funding was one of the main goals behind
Swedbank's rights issue in August 2009. Leaving the state guarantee
program is one more step in this direction. The fact that the bank can
fund itself on its own is a result of the support from the shareholders
through the two rights issues, our ongoing efforts to reduce the credit
and liquidity risk levels as well as a consequence of the market
beginning to normalise," said Michael Wolf, CEO of Swedbank.

"Swedbank has through the state guarantee been able to fund itself on
competitive terms, also during the turbulent period from autumn 2008 to
summer 2009. The guarantee has also implicitly benefitted all banks in
Sweden and has been an important precondition for allowing the Swedish
banking system to stand relatively strong during and after the financial
crisis," said Swedbank's Chairman of the Board Lars Idermark.

Swedbank has since July 2009 borrowed SEK200 billion in long-term
funding outside of the state guarantee program. During the first quarter
of 2010, Swedbank borrowed SEK100 billion, representing two-thirds of
the total amount of long-term funding maturing in 2010.

The bank will have outstanding loans previously issued under the
guarantee until July 2014. Swedbank will, as soon as there is more
clarity around the regulatory framework regarding requirements on banks'
liquidity, and should market conditions allow it, strive to buy back the
longest dated government guaranteed debt.

Swedbank has borrowed a total of SEK421.2 billion under the state
guarantee since 2008, including SEK234.8 billion in short-term funding
with maturities of less than 12 months and SEK186.4 billion in long-term
funding with maturities of more than 12 months. Swedbank had, at the end
of the fourth quarter 2009, SEK241 billion in outstanding loans. At the
end of the first quarter 2010, the amount of outstanding loans had
declined to SEK201.5 billion.

As of end-March, the maturity profile for the remaining debt was SEK39.6
billion in 2010, SEK82.4 billion in 2011, SEK40.5 billion in 2012,
SEK11.8 billion in 2013 and SEK27.2 billion in 2014.

Swedbank had, at the end of the fourth quarter 2009, paid SEK1.852
billion in fees for the state guarantee as well as SEK224 million in
fees to the government's stabilization fund.

Further information, please contact:
Michael Wolf, CEO and President, Swedbank, phone: +46 8 5859 00 00
Jonas Eriksson, Head of Treasury, Swedbank, phone: +46 76 765 50 88
Thomas Backteman, Head of Corporate Affairs, Swedbank, phone: +46 708
311 166
Anna Sundblad, Group Press Manager, Swedbank, phone: +46 70 321 39 95

Swedbank is the bank for the many people, households and companies. As a
leading bank in the home markets Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania,
Swedbank offers a wide range of financial services and products.
Swedbank has 9.5 million retail customers and 550,000 corporate
customers with 381 branches in Sweden and 226 branches in the Baltic
countries. The group is also present in other Nordic countries, the
U.S., China, Japan, Russia and Ukraine. As of December 31 2009 the
group had total assets of SEK 1,795 billion.
Read more at www.swedbank.com