Financial Supervisory Authority (Sweden)


Financial Supervisory Authority is the [Government agencies in Sweden|Swedish Government of Sweden|government agency] responsible for financial regulation in Sweden. It is responsible for the oversight, regulation and authorisation of financial markets and their participants. The agency falls under the Swedish Ministry of Finance and regulates all organisations that provide financial services in Sweden.
Under European Union policy frameworks, Finansinspektionen is a voting member of the respective Boards of Supervisors of the European Banking Authority, European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and European Securities and Markets Authority. It provides the permanent single common representative for Sweden in the Supervisory composition of the General Board of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority. It is also a member of the European Systemic Risk Board.

History

FI was formed 1991 to create a single integrated regulator covering banking, securities, and insurance 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 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 who are responsible for taking any action.
The authority has three main activities:

Notable cases

In June 2020, FI fined SEB 1 billion crowns 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. 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
  • 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 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.