• Handelsbanken goes on export in Europe
• Swedish ‘Taliban’ bank takes wisdom from H&M;

Bloomberg said investors are ignoring criticism from Standard & Poor’s that Svenska Handelsbanken AB — nicknamed “Europe’s safest bank” — is too reliant on short-term funding as bonds sold by the European Union’s best-capitalized bank rally.

“Handelsbanken’s model is essentially unchanged over 40 years and is tried and tested,” Nick Anderson, an analyst at Joh. Berenberg, Gossler & Co. KG in London, told Bloomberg. “I trust Handelsbanken, but can’t say the same about many European banks. Handelsbanken manages for risk; most European banks manage for regulation.”

The bank, based in Stockholm, said it plans to “sit down” with S&P; and explain its model.

Handelsbanken, sometimes nicknamed “the Taliban” for its fundamentalist approach to banking, is being hailed by investors, regulators and central bank executives all over the world. After standing stable during the financial crisis, not excepting state support money and still giving top returns, the Stockholm based bank has became the most studied lenders in recent years.

Despite its conservative approach, Svenska Handelsbanken is exporting its Swedish banking model to crisis-hit Europe to exploit a gap in the market left by job cuts and branch closures at other lenders.