The Swedish National Debt Office ( or shortly ''Riksgälden'') was founded by

Gustav III Gustav III (29 March 1792), also called ''Gustavus III'', was King of Sweden from 1771 until his assassination in 1792. He was the eldest son of King Adolf Frederick and Queen Louisa Ulrika of Sweden. Gustav was a vocal opponent of what he saw ...

at the

Riksdag of the Estates Riksdag of the Estates (; informally ) was the name used for the Estates of Sweden when they were assembled. Until its dissolution in 1866, the institution was the highest authority in Sweden next to the King. It was a Diet made up of the Fou ...

in 1789, through the Act of union and security. It is a Swedish

Government agency A government agency or state agency, sometimes an appointed commission, is a permanent or semi-permanent organization in the machinery of government (bureaucracy) that is responsible for the oversight and administration of specific functions, s ...

. The first task of the Debt Office was to finance the ongoing war against Russia. The method of raising funds was to issue

promissory note A promissory note, sometimes referred to as a note payable, is a legal instrument (more particularly, a financing instrument and a debt instrument), in which one party (the ''maker'' or ''issuer'') promises in writing to pay a determinate sum of ...

s called ''Riksgälds'' denominated in

Riksdaler The Svenska riksdaler () was the name of a Swedish coin first minted in 1604. Between 1777 and 1873, it was the currency of Sweden. The daler, like the dollar,''National Geographic''. June 2002. p. 1. ''Ask Us''. was named after the German Thale ...

which was the Swedish

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

at the time. The reason why the funds could not be raised through the

Riksbank Sveriges Riksbank, or simply the Riksbank, is the central bank of Sweden. Founded in 1668, it is the world's oldest surviving central bank, and the third oldest bank in continuous operation. Prior to World War I, it was also the only state- ...

was that its notes had to be backed by silver (

commodity money Commodity money is money whose value comes from a commodity of which it is made. Commodity money consists of objects having value or use in themselves ( intrinsic value) as well as their value in buying goods. This is in contrast to representa ...

) to two thirds, whereas no such restrictions applied for the

s (

credit money Credit theories of money, also called debt theories of money, are monetary economic theories concerning the relationship between credit and money. Proponents of these theories, such as Alfred Mitchell-Innes, sometimes emphasize that money and cr ...

) issued by the Debt office. This produced a heavy

seigniorage Seigniorage , also spelled seignorage or seigneurage (), is the increase in the value of money due to money creation minus the cost of producing the additional money. Monetary seigniorage is where government bonds are exchanged for newly create ...

-induced inflation, where the exchange rate for the promissory notes against silver was 1 to 4 in 1834. In 1989, after two hundred years as one of the few state agencies that reported directly to the

Riksdag The Riksdag ( , ; also or , ) is the parliament and the parliamentary sovereignty, supreme decision-making body of the Kingdom of Sweden. Since 1971, the Riksdag has been a unicameral parliament with 349 members (), elected proportional rep ...

, the Debt office was reconstituted and is now reporting to the

Ministry of Finance A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...

and the

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

. After 1989 it also assumed the role as the government's internal bank from the Riksbank. Since January 1, 2008 the Debt office handles the Swedish

deposit insurance Deposit insurance, deposit protection or deposit guarantee is a measure implemented in many countries to protect bank depositors, in full or in part, from losses caused by a bank's inability to pay its debts when due. Deposit insurance or deposit ...

, which 1996-2007 was handled by a separate governmental agency. Since 2022 the Swedish National Debt Office is headed by Director General Karolina Ekholm, PhD in economics.

Directors-general

*1945-1950 - Fredrik Emanuel Sandberg *1950-1961 - Sten Widlund *1961-1977 -

Karl Georg Ringström Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl of Austria, last Austrian Emperor * Karl (footballer) (born 1993), Karl Cachoe ...

*1977-1987 - Lars Kalderén *1988-1995 - Staffan Crona *1995-2004 -

Thomas Franzén Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...

*2004-2013 -

Bo Lundgren Bo Axel Magnus Lundgren (born 11 July 1947) is a Sweden, Swedish politician who served as the leader of the Moderate Party from 1999 to 2003.Hans Lindblad Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

*2022– - Karolina Ekholm

References

External links

Webpage of the Swedish National Debt Office
{{authority control Economy of Sweden Debt Office Public finance of Sweden

Directors-general

See also

References

External links