Supplementary written evidence submitted by Anders Bouvin, UK Chief Executive, Handelsbanken

Dear Mr Tyrie,

I am writing to provide the follow up information requested during my appearance in front of your committee on Tuesday 10 June.

You were specifically interested in the number of our SME customers who have previously been rejected by one of the High Street banks. As a bank that believes firmly in decentralisation and that sets no targets for its branch network, we do not hold this kind of information centrally as it is of little interest to us. However, I have spoken with a number of branches across our network in order to provide the committee with as good a steer as possible.

With the caveat that there is naturally a variance from community to community, I can estimate that somewhere around 25% of our SME customers have previously been rejected by a High Street bank.

I would also like to take this opportunity to reassure the committee that my answer regarding future branch openings was not intended as evasive. At Handelsbanken, we undertake no fixed planning. This is a policy right across the Handelsbanken Group since the 1970s, and applies to all business areas.

I realise this (as with many other aspects of our model) makes us unusual, but it is a simple result of this decades-long policy that I am unable to provide any figures. As you can imagine, it is also something our investors inquire about, though similarly we are unable to provide them with this information.

As I mentioned to the committee, we view Britain as a key growth market for the bank, and being well capitalised, we will continue to invest in order to meet the steady demand for local relationship banking that we see in communities right across the country.

Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you would like any further information.

18 June 2014