Handelsbanken — Move Your Money

Bucking the trend for a depersonalised and centralised service, Handelsbanken represents real local banking. With each branch run and operated independently, staff are empowered to make decisions themselves and to build personal relationships with their customers. It’s a reassuringly traditional approach that has seen the bank top customer satisfaction surveys for the last 5 years.

Yet despite its traditional approach, Handelsbanken is a distinctly modern organisation. It’s Oktogonen profit share scheme offers trainees at the tills the same long-term rewards as are given to its CEO, whilst the bank has performed better than it’s larger competitors’ year on year. Handelsbanken was also rated the safest bank in Europe and one of the safest in the world by Bloomberg — as well as being amongst the 5 highest scorers for current account providers on the Move Your Money scorecard.

The bank usually charges a monthly fee for running your account and they neither confirmed nor denied investing in fossil fuels for our Divest campaign, but rising customer numbers and an ever-expanding branch network suggest Handelsbanken is worth considering as a truly local, grounded and ethical banking alternative.

To find out more about our MYM Score and how we rate the banks & building societies, click here

Originally published at moveyourmoney.org.uk on October 16, 2014.