One of the top ten banks in the world has reported encouraging growth to its UK lending by announcing it rose by 23 per cent in Q4 of 2012, compared to the same period in 2011.

Swedish bank Handelsbanken has 148 banks in the UK and said its latest group results confirmed its place among the ten strongest banks in the world.

In a year that saw the Bank open 29 new UK branches, business lending increased 22 per cent to £7.7 billion, while lending to personal banking customers rose 27 per cent to £2.8 billion.

UK customer deposits increased 43 per cent over the period to total £3.1 billion.

The 141-year-old bank recently published its 2012 annual results and credits its continuing growth down to a clear, long-term focus on customer satisfaction, prudent banking and cost efficiency. This local, customer-led approach has seen the bank rated top for satisfaction and loyalty for the last four years, in an independent annual survey of British banks’ personal and business customers.

Anders Bouvin, Handelsbanken’s UK Chief Executive, commented: “For us it’s not about how far or how fast we grow in the UK.

“Instead it’s about ensuring every day that our branches are able to deliver the best possible service to their customers, based only on their individual needs.”

Handelsbanken also reaffirmed its robust capital and liquidity positions and its low credit loss ratios, which have earned the Swedish-headquartered bank among the highest credit ratings of any international bank.

The bank was recently judged one of the world’s ten strongest banks for the second year running by financial information provider, Bloomberg.

Worldwide, Handelsbanken has around 750 branches in 24 countries, employing over 11,000 staff.