Bank celebrates 25 years of branch power

Having agreed two devolution deals and with a mayoral office that feels like it’s been around much longer than the 14 months it has actually existed, the West Midlands is now very much on board with the benefits that local decision making can bring.

One bank brings 25 years’ experience of that model here in the region and has no intention of changing now.

Handelsbanken opened its first West Midlands branch in Temple Row, Birmingham, in 1993 and now has 15 spread from Stafford to Stratford among its 208-branch UK network.

“Our USP is the amount of discretion we have at each branch to make decisions for each customer,” said Tony Hall, Handelsbanken’s Edgbaston branch manager who first joined the bank in Birmingham 16 years ago.

He said: “Since the early 70s, our CEO believed that was fundamental to our success, staying decentralised. Other CEOs have stayed on that path.

“Even through the banking crisis the bank didn’t waver. It was empowering for the managers to be told ‘you know the customers, you lead us through this’. That demonstrated the model can withstand anything.”

For him, the importance of relationships and trust is central to the bank’s success.

“We have worked hard over 25 years in Birmingham to grow from a bank that nobody had heard of,” he said. “Putting in the hard yards, knocking on doors.

“There’s a lot of passion – people really believe in Handelsbanken and customers tell us that they recognise that and that’s really important to us.”

What is less often recognised is that Handelsbanken does not have minimum criteria, but want to attract customers who are looking for a personal, rather than transactional, relationship.

Hall said: “It’s people who recognise the value in a traditional bank relationship, people who can manage their own finances and who are established in what they do with a proven track record.”

That relationship works both ways, said Stephen Ellis, who moved from running the Bromsgrove branch to take charge at Temple Row late last year.

“Handelsbanken is about being close to our customers,” he said. “The closer we are, the better the service we can provide.

“We have got very simple, traditional values and we try not to over-complicate things.”

This simplicity is built in to the organisational structure, with the decision making rooted in the branches.

“We have more responsibility but the Bank trusts us,” said Ellis. “This is the decentralised model in action. Handelsbanken trusts its employees to make the right decisions – for the Bank and for the customer.”

The approach is about service, rather than sales, which makes it easier for staff to keep those interests balanced.

Hall said: “It would be difficult to have the amount of local discretion if you were also incentivising people.

“Handelsbanken doesn’t pay any bonuses or any commission so our decisions are always made in the customers and bank’s best interests.”

Handelsbanken also takes a different approach to its competitors when addressing another bugbear of consumers – telephone banking.

“Whilst we have a 24/7 telephone service available to our customers, this complements not replaces the contact they have with their local branch: they are not forced to ring a call centre to speak to us. ,” said Dave Hastings, who set up the Newhall Street branch in Birmingham city centre five years ago.

” Our services are based on the personal relationships we build with our customers. If a customer wants to speak to us, their first port of call will be their local branch based account manager who they can call directly. That’s where the localism comes in.”

But the local approach need not limit the bank’s potential.

“There’s a market there and a big market. The model sets us up to grow our businesses with the right customers,” said Hastings.

“When you have satisfied customers, they introduce you to other customers.”

Although Handelsbanken was founded in Stockholm in July 1871- making it just six months younger than the nation state of Germany – it now operates in over 20 countries, with the UK coming second only to Sweden in terms of branch numbers.

Brexit has encouraged the bank to speed up some structural changes which will increase the strength of its UK operation.

Hall said: ” When it comes to Brexit, so far as our customers are concerned, it is very much business as usual.

“Handelsbanken is fully committed to the UK for the long-term – we see many opportunities to develop our business here due to the growing demand we are seeing for local relationship banking.

“The structural changes we are implementing will prepare us for future growth here in the UK as we base further expertise and resources here.”

Close