Handelsbanken earns top ratings

Handelsbanken has been named Britain's most admired bank.

The bank, which has branches in Blackburn, Burnley, Chorley, Lancaster, Lytham, Preston and Southport, earned top marks for customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The news of the survey, conducted by European research institution EPSI Rating, follows another, the government-backed Business Banking Insight survey (BBI), which saw Handelsbanken ranked top by its SME customers.

Run by the British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses, the BBI survey found that Handelsbanken’s SME customers were more willing than customers of their competitors to recommend their bank.

Phil Skupski, manager of Handelsbanken’s Blackburn branch commented: “We are delighted to receive the independent recognition of the quality of our service that has been well received by our growing customer numbers." Handelsbanken also published its third quarter financial results, revealing that net lending to UK households rose by 11 per cent to £6.2bn in the last 12 months. The bank also extended net lending to UK businesses by a further 11 per cent, to £12.4bn in total.