The Swedish financial system

This study investigates the evolution of the Swedish financial system since the 1980s. The concept of financialisation, with its different elements and perspectives, is used as a lens through which the key historical developments are analysed. The aim of the study is two-fold. First, by highlighting some unique country-specific features, it addresses the profound changes that have taken place in the Swedish financial system during the last decades in relation to the ‘rise and fall’ of the so-called ‘Swedish model’. Second, in doing so, the study considers the appropriateness and applicability of standard attempts to categorise financial systems according to the weight of banks versus markets, states versus markets and so forth. The picture that emerges from the Swedish example in particular shows the need to go deeper and beyond these classifications in order to obtain or more nuanced understanding of the increasing role of financial markets in developed countries.