Sweden: Bankers to the World

Everywhere in Sweden a traveler is likely to find smorgasbord, attractive women—and the 100-year-old Skandinaviska Bank. Ranging from a new highly computerized branch at Sundsvall in the northern timberland to a modest cottage draped with a fishing net on the island of Tjorn, Skandinaviska's 284 branches thoroughly cover the country. While assiduously courting the rural shepherds and woodsmen, it does not overlook the city folk, either at home or abroad. In the heart of Stockholm, it has for the past two years been bulldozing away hills and laying girders for an eleven-story...