Handelsbanken, a local relationship bank which has a branch in Newport, has announced that in the first quarter of this year lending to businesses was up nine per cent on Q1 2015 at £10.57bn.
The bank, which has 207 branches across the UK, said lending to households (largely mortgages) rose by 17 per cent to £5.29bn over the same period. 
Last year Bloomberg named Handelsbanken as one of the most financially strong banks in the world – the only European bank which has been in the top 20 every year since the list was founded.
In South Wales, the bank has four branches in Cardiff, Bridgend, Newport and Swansea, with a combined relationship management team of 21 servicing both the corporate and individual banking markets across the region. Each branch takes responsibility for customers in its own community, and all key decisions are also made in-branch. 
Steve Smith, branch manager at Handelsbanken, Swansea, said: “We believe in traditional local relationship banking, where each branch knows their local community and works with customers to find the best outcome based on their individual financial requirements. It’s a customer led, decentralised way of banking, with branches having the power to take the decisions that count, for example on borrowing and pricing – and we also provide full internet banking and mobile apps.”