Retail banking market leader in Sweden, with a large customer base and wide distribution network. Strong risk-adjusted capital levels, reflecting the low risk profile of domestic operations. Strong earnings capacity. More concentrated exposure to its domestic market than peers. Greater reliance on wholesale funding than international peers. Sluggish loan growth in Baltic markets. Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' stable outlook on Sweden-based Swedbank AB reflects that we are likely to remove both the downward transitional notch and our one notch of government support by year-end 2015--thereby keeping the ratings at their current level--if we believe there is a greater likelihood that senior unsecured creditors could incur losses if the bank fails. We could lower the ratings on Swedbank if the
