The international finance magazine Global Finance has announced Swedbank's Personal Internet Banking as the best one in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Moreover, Swedbank’s Personal Internet Banking has also been named as the best one in Central and Eastern Europe in such categories as Investment Management Services, Bill Payment & Presentment, and Best Online Consumer Credit.

Winners of the competition were selected by a world-class judging panel. Winning banks were selected based on the following criteria: strength of strategy for attracting and servicing online customers, success in getting clients to use web offerings, growth of online customers, breadth of product offerings, evidence of tangible benefits gained from Internet initiatives, and web site design and functionality.

“In less than a decade, the Internet has transformed the way many consumers and most businesses bank,” says Joseph D. Giarraputo, publisher of Global Finance, in the official release. “The continuing improvements in Internet offerings represented by this year's entries show that more significant Internet banking developments are still ahead of us.”

“We take pride in this recognition by experts, yet our greatest pleasure always lies in appreciation by our customers! The proportion of electronic settlements at Swedbank has already risen to 98.6%, which is a strong figure on European scale. Thanks to appreciation by our customers, Swedbank's Personal Internet Banking facility is the most popular online banking site in Latvia with over 800 thousand users visiting the Internet Banking site more than 4 million times a month, “says Oksana Sivokobiļska, Board Member and Head of Retail Banking at Swedbank Latvia. “The aim of each and every achievement is to make our clients' lives more comfortable, and for that reason development will certainly be continued."