Most banks in Scandinavia — a region of negative rates and imminent cashlessness — are shutting branches to cut costs. Not Svenska Handelsbanken AB.
Sweden’s second-biggest bank by assets says its success depends on how many humans it has on the ground. The surge in online banking will not change that, chief executive officer Frank Vang-Jensen said.
“Every channel in the bank, every road in the bank, goes to the branch, no matter whether it is a digital meeting or a physical meeting,” Vang-Jensen said by phone.
The ambition stands out in Scandinavia, which is among the most advanced places in the world when it comes to computerized banking. Sweden is well on its way to becoming a cashless society — tourists waving bank notes are turned away at the doors of the Abba museum and even the country’s homeless have started accepting digital payment.
However, it seems bank customers might still need humans.
“Branches are a competitive edge that we have in Handelsbanken and that’s why we want to keep them,” Vang-Jensen said.
“We are very decentralized and we try to put all decisions out in the branches, because they know the customers,” he said. “And that doesn’t depend on whether the customer wants to do their business digitally or locally.”
However, how long can a bank buck the trend?
Nordea analyst Christian Hede says: not very.
“As I see it, they are fighting something that cannot be changed,” Hede said. “They’ve been doing that with success so far, but I think they’ll have to change at some point.”
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