Swedish bank ForeningsSparbanken opened a new portal to provide personal finance information and advice for home Internet users.
The portal, named Bankboken (bankbook), was launched at a cost of 175 million kronor (US$21 million). The debut included the site and a print version to be used as a marketing vehicle. The bank produced 1.7 million copies of the book and distributed it to households throughout Sweden.
The Web site contains about 800 pages on a variety of finance topics.
The educational portal site and its documents will be continuously updated so that users have access to accurate information, and will explain the changes in law and regulations that alter the previous content.
The launch of Bankboken is the beginning of an active process of meeting with our customers in a more educated way, explained CEO Reinhold Geijer.
Descriptions of ForeingsSparbanken services are available as an extension of the portal.
The bank also plans to launch a version of the portal for corporate customers by the end of next year.
This portal is an major investment from the ForeningsSparbanken, and competes with SEB Banken in terms of its online capabilities.
ForeningsSparbanken currently boasts 320,000 Internet customers to its banking services.