Hansapank                     NEWS RELEASE                      02/28/2002



FITCH RATINGS ASSIGNS HANSABANK A-RATING



Fitch Ratings (‘Fitch’) has today assigned Long- and Short-term

foreign currency ratings to Hansapank of A- and F2, respectively. The

said ratings are the highest that Fitch has assigned to any commercial

bank in Central and Eastern Europe. The outlook on the Long-term

rating is stable.



Fitch also assigned a Long-term rating of A- and Short-term rating of

F2 to senior and subordinated debt issued under Hansabank’s USD500mln

EMTN debt issuance program.



In addition, Fitch assigned the bank an Individual rating of C.



Due to the above, Hansabank has decided not extend the ratings

assigned to the Group by S&P.





Mart Tõevere

Head of investor relations

+372 613 1569