Digitization has rapidly changed industry after industry in Sweden.
The traditional large banks have been put under very strong pressure from various smaller players who have selected parts of the banking business and then competed hard with low prices and availability.
For those who want to trade in shares, there are niche banks that have apps that are very user-friendly.
Other players specialize in cheap mortgages.
Some online brokers have half the price of funds compared to the major banks.
Common to all the new players is that their digital business model pushes costs and provides consumers with affordable alternatives.
The conscious consumer picks the raisins out of the cake and finds the lowest mortgage rate at a niche bank and the cheapest pension savings at another player.
Being loyal to the bank you have had a long relationship with has paid off worse and worse over time.
The big banks have been good in all parts, but perhaps not the best in some parts.
What has been an advantage is the long-term relationship and the credibility and security that the banks have been able to offer with a package solution for several financial services.
Handelsbanken stubbornly remained
It is in this context that Handelsbanken's strategy change must be seen.
The bank has previously strongly defended the importance of being physically present in the community, with many local branches.
The principle has been to lend money according to the "church tower principle".
This risk-minimizing principle is based only on lending money to the entrepreneurs and private individuals that you see from the tower in the church in the village.
The physical presence with a local office became a guarantee that you only lent money to actors whose character and credit credibility could be personally assessed.
This approach to its customers has been very strongly rooted among Handelsbanken's employees.
Despite the fact that the digital business logic described above has become increasingly clear over a long period of time, Handelsbanken has stubbornly stuck to its strategy.
When the then CEO Frank Vang-Jensen in early 2016 communicated plans to close between 50 and 60 offices - due to digitalisation - it created a violent protest storm.
This is also believed to have been a strong contributing factor to Frank-Vang-Jensen being forced to resign as CEO a short time later.
But four years later, CEO Carina Åkerström proposes a more than twice as large closure.
Around 180 offices out of 300 will be closed down, the number of employees will be reduced by around a thousand people.
Change of previously successful strategy
The fact that CEO Carina Åkerström is selling in this change as "gathering strength" is a description that probably not all customers sign.
Which offices will disappear is not communicated, but those with the lowest profitability and the least number of customers will of course smoke first.
These are probably found in the countryside.
The customer group that gets in a lot of trouble is older, who can not or dare not do their banking business digitally.
From that perspective, it becomes a bit special when Carina Åkerström describes the change as "customer-driven" and that the bank "has been waiting for customers for quite some time".
During corona, there are probably many elderly people who have not been able to visit their local bank branch due to the risk of infection.
Handelsbanken is now on a "digital journey of change" where you have to "embrace your cost problem", CEO Carina Åkerström said at today's press conference.
This is exactly the case - whether customers follow the journey depends to a large extent on how strong the digital offer will be.
Carina Åkerström also emphasized that the offices are Handelsbanken's backbone.
It is possible - but today's announcement of fewer branches means a clear change in Handelsbanken's previously very successful strategy.