Financial Supervisory Authority (, FI) is the

Swedish government agency The government agencies in Sweden are state-controlled organizations that act independently to carry out the policies of the Government of Sweden. The ministries are relatively small and merely policy-making organizations, allowed to monitor the ...

responsible for

financial regulation Financial regulation is a broad set of policies that apply to the financial sector in most jurisdictions, justified by two main features of finance: systemic risk, which implies that the failure of financial firms involves public interest consi ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It is responsible for the oversight, regulation and authorisation of

financial market A financial market is a market in which people trade financial securities and derivatives at low transaction costs. Some of the securities include stocks and bonds, raw materials and precious metals, which are known in the financial marke ...

s and their participants. The agency falls under the Swedish

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 regulates all organisations that provide

financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...

in Sweden.

History

FI was formed 1991 to create a single integrated regulator covering

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts Deposit account, deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital m ...

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

, and

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

in Sweden. This was done with the merging of the former banking and insurance supervisory bodies, the Bank Inspectorate () and the Insurance Supervision Authority ().

Responsibilities

FI's primary responsibility is market stability and the monitoring of financial markets and participants. It also has a responsibility to provide

consumer protection Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent business ...

in relation to financial products. One of its tasks is monitoring for instability that will negatively affect the Swedish financial system. If it believes that this is the case it has a duty to report that to the

Swedish government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden () is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Minister and their cabinet ministers (). The Government is responsible for its actions ...

who are responsible for taking any action. The authority has three main activities: * Issue of permits to companies that wish to provide financial services * Designing rules and regulations for financial activities * Supervision of these rules and the performance of risk assessments

Notable cases

In June 2020, FI fined SEB 1 billion crowns ($107.11 million) for failures in compliance and governance in relation to anti-money laundering regulations in the Baltics.

Organisational structure

FI is a Swedish government central administrative authority that falls under the

Swedish Ministry of Finance The Ministry of Finance () is a Swedish government ministry responsible for matters relating to economic policy, the central government budget, taxes, banking, security and insurance, international economic work, central, regional and local gov ...

. It is run by an eight-member board which is appointed by the government. This includes the head of the agency, the Director General.

Directors General

* 2023–2025: Daniel Barr * 2022–2023: Susanna Grufman * 2015–2022: Erik Thedéen * 2009–2015: Martin Andersson * 2008–2009: Eric Saers ''(acting')'' * 2003–2008: Ingrid Bonde * 1993–2002: Claes Norgren * 1991–1993: Anders Sahlén

Criticism

The Director General of the Financial Supervisory Authority, Daniel Barr, was forced to resign by 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 ...

in 2025 after Justitieombudsmannen had criticized how the Swedish Pensions Authority managed investments during the time Daniel Barr was Director General there. ''Dagens industri'' noted that trust in the Financial Supervisory Authority had been weakened following this scandal.

References

https://www.fi.se/en/published/news/2022/susanna-grufman-takes-over-as-acting-director-general/

External links

*
Official website in English
Financial Supervisory Authority Financial Supervisory Authority Regulation in Sweden Financial regulatory authorities of Sweden Government agencies established in 1991 1991 establishments in Sweden {{Sweden-gov-stub