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Handelsbanken
Dread
Posts: 34 Forumite
I'm searching for resources to help me set up a business in the North Kent area. Like most of us I have been burned (and continue to be burned) by unhelpful, expensive, money grabbing high street bank who try to sell you everything under the sun except simple banking services.
Quite by accident I stumbled on what was described as "a new style boutique bank" but what seems to be considerably more substantial than that. As an asides the new 'Metro Bank' being set up in central London has just had it's licence granted.
Handelsbanken maintain their focus is on customer service, they claim they don't sell insurance or the usual 'essential' add on's that most banks will fleece you with. More importantly their lending decisions are made by........wait for it.......a Branch Manager (Gasp!) at branch level without reference to head office. They are a Swedish bank and as such if they go pop the Swedish Government guarantee to refund you 500,000 SEK (£40,000+ depending on the prevailing exchange rate) of your lost money but also conform to the British scheme which guarantees the next £50,000, so £90,000+ is guaranteed from one account...........not that I have 90,000p far less £90,000.
They are 25th out of the top 50 safest banks in the world and there is only one British bank in the top 50. They state that senior management remuneration is by fixed salary and that no bonuses are paid. They claim to operate successfully because of their emphasis on customer satisfaction:
"Handelsbanken has been ranked top by both Corporates and Individuals in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty in a recent independent survey."
Going on to give details of the organisation that conducted the survey. Oh!......I almost forgot, they don't have call centres, only branch contacts who evidently answer customers personally.
With all the expense, inconvenience, depersonalisation and generally appalling behaviour of the high street banks I have dealt with in the past I'm at least going to give them a call. They may make charges that we might not recognise but what the heck, I'm getting fleeced anyway.............and a decision on an overdraft or personal loan won't be made by some pimply Oik with a questionnaire in front of him.
Perhaps Martin can do some digging for us and find out the state of play with them.
http://www.handelsbanken.co.uk
Quite by accident I stumbled on what was described as "a new style boutique bank" but what seems to be considerably more substantial than that. As an asides the new 'Metro Bank' being set up in central London has just had it's licence granted.
Handelsbanken maintain their focus is on customer service, they claim they don't sell insurance or the usual 'essential' add on's that most banks will fleece you with. More importantly their lending decisions are made by........wait for it.......a Branch Manager (Gasp!) at branch level without reference to head office. They are a Swedish bank and as such if they go pop the Swedish Government guarantee to refund you 500,000 SEK (£40,000+ depending on the prevailing exchange rate) of your lost money but also conform to the British scheme which guarantees the next £50,000, so £90,000+ is guaranteed from one account...........not that I have 90,000p far less £90,000.
They are 25th out of the top 50 safest banks in the world and there is only one British bank in the top 50. They state that senior management remuneration is by fixed salary and that no bonuses are paid. They claim to operate successfully because of their emphasis on customer satisfaction:
"Handelsbanken has been ranked top by both Corporates and Individuals in terms of customer satisfaction and loyalty in a recent independent survey."
Going on to give details of the organisation that conducted the survey. Oh!......I almost forgot, they don't have call centres, only branch contacts who evidently answer customers personally.
With all the expense, inconvenience, depersonalisation and generally appalling behaviour of the high street banks I have dealt with in the past I'm at least going to give them a call. They may make charges that we might not recognise but what the heck, I'm getting fleeced anyway.............and a decision on an overdraft or personal loan won't be made by some pimply Oik with a questionnaire in front of him.
Perhaps Martin can do some digging for us and find out the state of play with them.
http://www.handelsbanken.co.uk
Regards
Dread
Dread
0
Comments
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you've got to rich for an account though.0
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They are a Swedish bank and as such if they go pop the Swedish Government guarantee to refund you 500,000 SEK (£40,000+ depending on the prevailing exchange rate) of your lost money but also conform to the British scheme which guarantees the next £50,000, so £90,000+ is guaranteed from one account...........not that I have 90,000p far less £90,000.
No.
The FSCS guarantees the amount between the 500000 SEK and £50000.
So the maximum guarantee is £50000 or 500000 SEK whichever is the greater.
At todays exchange rate 500000 SEK is £46696 so, in the event of a default, the FSCS would top up the compensation by a further £3304 to the maximum of £50000.
http://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/shb/inet/icentrb.nsf/default/q16F33BC20C8E5460802574E3004C328A
https://www.insattningsgarantin.se/en/0 -
No.
The FSCS guarantees the amount between the 500000 SEK and £50000.
So the maximum guarantee is £50000 or 500000 SEK whichever is the greater.
http://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/shb/inet/icentrb.nsf/default/q16F33BC20C8E5460802574E3004C328A
You are right, I did some more digging and found this "This means that if our bank failed, our UK customers could claim up to £44,625.00 (see Note 1 below) from the Swedish Deposit Guarantee Scheme and if they have more saved with us, they could also claim for the remainder up to £50,000 from the FSCS. This is because the Swedish Deposit Guarantee Scheme is only responsible for paying the first part of the compensation up to £44,625.00 and the FSCS is only responsible for paying the second part of compensation – being above £44,625.00 and up to £50,000.
If customers have over £50,000 saved with us, then the amount over £50,000 is not protected by any compensation scheme."
But their initial statements are either deliberately misleading or badly written.
Having said all that, I'm not really interested in that part anyway (It's no worse or better than our own banks anyway) I'm interested in their approach to day to day services.Regards
Dread0 -
I'll try and re-find my information, but I know they say they are for 'high net worth individuals'.
Was it this you were thinking of MrT?
From the link bottom right corner of main page, 'Check out our highly competitive deposit rates':Check out our highly competitive deposit rates
As an individual, do you have more than £250k to invest or as a business do you have more than £1 million to invest. If the answer is yes, the team at the Oxford Branch of Handelsbanken is here to help you make your money work harder for you with our highly competitive deposit interest rates.
There's more, but they don't give the rates... from what's said it looks like something you discuss. But this is for deposits obviously and whether similar levels of funding are required for a personal or business current account isn't clear. I had heard of this bank (but that's all, knew nothing about them) as one of the business suppliers we used banked with them.~cottager0 -
Was it this you were thinking of MrT?
From the link bottom right corner of main page, 'Check out our highly competitive deposit rates':
There's more, but they don't give the rates... from what's said it looks like something you discuss. But this is for deposits obviously and whether similar levels of funding are required for a personal or business current account isn't clear. I had heard of this bank (but that's all, knew nothing about them) as one of the business suppliers we used banked with them.
It might have been. But I also emailed the branch nearest to me, where I was given loads of examples, but I can't find the email.
This was months ago though, so I've probably won't find it.0 -
There is not much info on the website, any know what the minimum deposit is for a current account, or minimum salary requirement?0
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Don't think that I'll be rushing down to my local branch to take advantage of their Cash ISA rates.....The Handelsbanken Cash ISA is a deposit account that pays a variable rate of interest. The current interest rate is 1.0% p.a.Tax-free/AER**0
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Do you have a link for this, please.They are 25th out of the top 50 safest banks in the world and there is only one British bank in the top 50.
Edit
It's OK. I've found it.
http://www.handelsbanken.co.uk/shb/inet/icentrb.nsf/vlookuppics/1_news_worlds_50_safest_banks/$file/global_finanace_worlds_50_safest_banks.pdf
although I'm sure there's a shorter version, and that spelling of global_finance seems a bit odd ...
Actually, Handelsbanken seem to be 23rd.
Interesting that no US bank made the top 30.
That 4 Aussie banks & 1 NZ bank made the top 17.
(Does that make Clydesdale (NAB) the top-placed UK player at 11?)
That otherwise Santander were the highest major UK-player at 13th (above HSBC at 18th).
And that Nationwide BS were ahead of all the other UK banks.0
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