We supervise the financial marketsThe low interest rates are expected to remain low for a longer period of time. It could lead to greater risk-taking among various actors, and increased challenges for insurance undertakings.
Finansinspektionen (FI) strengthened its anti-money laundering supervision in 2019, in part by dedicating considerable resources to reviewing major Swedish banks’ governance and control of anti-money laundering measures in Baltic subsidiaries.
Transparency on the Swedish bond markets has decreased. This is the conclusion of Finansinspektionen’s (FI) analysis of the impact of the transparency rules that were introduced when the Directive and the Regulation for the securities market entered into force in 2018.
A disorderly and abrupt increase in international market rates could lead to significantly higher term and equity risk premia. This is the conclusion of an analysis conducted by FI.
The majority of consumption loans (non-mortgage loans) are small and have a high interest rate and a short maturity. However, it is households with large loans that represent the largest share of new lending, and these loans are growing at the fastest rate. The households with the highest income take out the largest loans. If the interest rate increases, many borrowers will need to use a large part of their income to make their interest and amortisation payments. This is evident in Finansinspektionen’s (FI’s) analysis of consumption loans, Swedish Consumption Loans.
Both the global and the Swedish economies appear to be slowing down. Low interest rates – which have resulted in high risk-taking and rising asset prices – are expected to remain low for a prolonged period of time. Resilience in the Swedish financial system is satisfactory in general. However, even if the banks’ resilience is satisfactory overall, FI makes the assessment that they need more capital to cover the risks in their lending to commercial real estate firms.
The commercial real estate market plays a key role in financial stability. The financial position of commercial firms is currently satisfactory, but many firms are vulnerable to higher interest rates and weaker economic growth.
Finansinspektionen (FI) has conducted a survey of how insurance undertakings are performing their own risk and solvency assessments. FI is of the opinion that many undertakings’ assessments can be improved.
Insurance undertakings have taken steps to develop IT systems, customer communication and quality assurance since FI published its previous report on personal injury claims handling in 2017.
In this report, Finansinspektionen (FI) presents the most prioritised consumer risks it has identified for 2019. FI also presents the experiences from its consumer protection work over the past year. Finally, FI identifies two areas on the financial market where consumer protection is clearly deficient and proposes regulatory changes to fill these gaps.
