In our view, Swedbank's strong capital and earnings will likely offset some of the effects of increased economic risks that we anticipate for banks in Sweden. Consequently, we are revising our outlook on Swedbank and its core subsidiary Swedbank Mortgage AB to stable from negative and affirming our 'A+/A-1' ratings. The stable outlook reflects our expectation that Swedbank will keep improving its capital position over the next two years, via continued strong earnings performance and moderate lending growth. On July 19, 2013, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Sweden-based Swedbank AB to stable from negative. At the same time, we affirmed our 'A+' long-term and 'A-1' short-term counterparty credit ratings on the bank and its core subsidiary
