Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (pronounced in Swedish: [skandıın
Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB), abbreviated SEB, is a Swedish bank headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic States, SEB provides comprehensive financial services. In Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, the bank's business focus is on providing corporate and investment banking services to corporate and institutional clients. The bank was founded in 1972 by the Swedish Wallenberg family, which remains SEB's largest shareholder through its main investment company, Investor AB. SEB is Sweden's largest bank by market capitalization and total assets.
The origins of SEB Group can be traced back to Stockholm Enskilda Bank and Scandinaviska Bank, founded in 1856 and 1864, respectively. Both sides played an important role in the industrialization of Scandinavia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially in Sweden. After experiencing strong growth throughout the 20th century, Stockholm Enskilda Bank and Scandinavia Veska Bank merged in 1972 to form the SEB Group.
Since the European Banking Regulation came into effect at the end of 2014, SEB's German and Baltic subsidiaries are located in the Eurozone countries and have been designated as important institutions and are therefore directly supervised by the European Central Bank.
History
In 1972, Stockholm Enskilda Bank (founded in 1856 by André Oscar Wallenberg) and Scandinaviska Bank (founded in 1864) merged to form SEB. Reasons for the merger included the creation of a bank better able to serve corporate clients and withstand competition from major international banks. Through its predecessor, Stockholm Enskilda Bank, it claimed to be the first bank in the world to employ women.
Stockholms Enskilda Bank, founded and run by the Wallenberg family of banking, was the key to their investments throughout the late 19th century and most of the 20th century. Even today, its successor is one of the most valuable of the Wallenberg family companies, alongside the likes of SKF, Atlas Copco, and Ericsson, which used to hold major shares before changes in Swedish legislation in the early twentieth century; these shares were taken over by Investor AB, which today is still mainly owned by the Wallenberg family.
Skandinaviska Banken was founded as Skandinaviska Kreditaktiebolaget and was one of the projects of the Scandinavian Movement. Under the efforts of André Oscar Wallenberg, Skandinaviska Banken was originally founded and headquartered in Gothenburg rather than Copenhagen, contrary to the wishes of Danish financier Carl Frederik Tietgen. Its headquarters was later moved to Stockholm. After its establishment, the bank expanded throughout Scandinavia and eventually to other parts of the Nordic region until its merger in 1972.
In 1997, SEB acquired the insurance company Trygg-Hansa and in 1998 changed its Swedish market logo and brand name from SE-Banken to SEB. At the end of the same year, SEB purchased the first shares in three Baltic banks, Eesti Ühispank in Estonia, Latvijas Unibanka in Latvia and Vilniaus Bankas in Lithuania. This was the beginning of the bank's expansion into the Baltic countries, in which it still has a large share.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, SEB was initially rejected for merging with Swedbank, a decision taken by the European Union. In 2007 and 2008, SEB, in collaboration with the World Bank, came up with the concept of Green Bonds, a form of bond designed to accelerate the green transition. Later, due to weak profitability, SEB Group sold its banking operations in Germany and Ukraine to Santander in Spain.
SEB Kort AB, a subsidiary of SEB Group, was a concessionaire for Diners Club International in the Nordic countries until the closure of the aforementioned services on 31 May 2019, citing increased competition and regulatory pressures in the Nordic payment card market.
Market
SEB Lithuania Headquarters
SEB Shared Service Center in Vilnius, Lithuania
SEB Group's main market is its home country, Sweden, and it is also the largest bank in the country by market capitalization and total assets. It is also one of the largest banks in Sweden in terms of employees and customers, with around 17,500 in the former and around 4.50 million in the latter.
SEB's other main markets are the Baltic States, where Swedish banks have an important presence. SEB is one of the largest banks in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and Swedbank, one of Sweden's four largest banks, is one of its main competitors. SEB Group also operates in most other Nordic countries as well as in larger foreign markets such as Germany and the United Kingdom.
BUSINESS
In Sweden and the Baltic States, SEB is a universal bank offering financial advice and a wide range of financial services to all client groups. In Denmark, Finland, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, the bank's operations focus on providing full-service services to corporate and institutional clients. SEB also has offices in more than 20 locations worldwide, including New York, São Paulo, London, Luxembourg, Geneva, Warsaw, Kiev, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and New Delhi.
SEB serves 2,000 large corporations and 1,100 Financial Institution Groups, 400,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and approximately 4 million individuals.
The company operates through six business units; Large Corporations and Financial Institution Groups, Corporate and Private Clients, Private Wealth Management and Family Offices, Baltic, Life and Asset Management.
The SEB Group remains owned and led by its founding family, the Wallenbergs, with Marcus Wallenberg as Chairperson of the Company's Board of Directors. The Wallenberg family's investment in SEB is primarily from Investor AB, a family investment firm.
Sustainability
SEB signed the United Nations Global Compact in 2004 and has since committed to several global initiatives and international codes of conduct. These include the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the United Nations Environment Programme Financial Institutions Group Principles for Responsible Banking, the Net Zero Banking Alliance, the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative.
SEB has ten sectoral policies for agriculture, arms and defence, forestry, fossil fuels, gambling, mining and metals, renewable energy, shipping, tobacco and transport. In addition, the company has developed thematic policies on the environment (including climate change, freshwater and biodiversity) as well as social and human rights. In addition to co-developing the green bond concept with the World Bank in 2007 and 2008, SEB was involved in the development of the Green Bond Principles in 2014. This is partly in line with the modern Swedish idea of focusing on reducing climate change.
In 2009, SEB published its first sustainability report in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Since 2017, sustainability reports have been integrated into annual reports and aligned with reporting frameworks such as the Working Group on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the TCFD and the Principles for Responsible Banking. Unlike many banks, SEB is less controversial in its climate policy than large Financial Institutions Groups such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.
