We supervise the financial marketsAs of 1 January 2021, FI will implement new procedures for how it announces opened and closed supervision investigations.
In light of the economic uncertainty caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, FI expects banks, including credit institutions and other financial firms such as insurance companies, to be restrictive with dividends and share buybacks until 30 September 2021. During this period, total dividends from and buybacks by the banks should not exceed 25 per cent of their aggregate net earnings for the two financial years 2019–2020.
An increase in the spread of the coronavirus will dampen the recovery in European economies and, in the long run, this could impact financial stability, writes Finansinspektionen (FI) in this year’s second stability report, which will be published today.
As the crisis unrolled this past spring in full force, it required fast and extraordinary measures. For example, FI lowered the countercyclical buffer requirement for the banks and encouraged them at the same time to postpone their dividend payments until the situation had become clearer. During the autumn, FI repeated its message to the banks to not make any dividend payments in 2020.
Finansinspektionen (FI) is issuing credit market company AK Nordic AB a remark. The company must also pay an administrative fine of SEK 20 million.
Large credits are growing, but the smallest credits are growing faster. More borrowers are having difficulty making their payments soon after the credits are granted, and these payment difficulties are more prevalent among younger borrowers than older borrowers. These are some of the conclusions from Finansinspektionen's report this year on consumer credit. These conclusions indicate that lenders’ credit checks are not working as they should, and FI is therefore now reviewing the guidelines.
Despite positive signals, there is still considerable uncertainty about how the coronavirus pandemic will develop in the next few months in both Sweden and the rest of the world. To ensure the banks’ resilience in a situation that continues to be uncertain, the banks should suspend the payment of dividends to shareholders in 2020. This was the message from Finansinspektionen’s Director General Erik Thedéen at Fastighetsdagen today.
SEB has not sufficiently identified the risk of money laundering in its Baltic operations and has had deficiencies in its governance and control of the Baltic subsidiary banks’ anti-money laundering measures. SEB is therefore being issued a remark and an administrative fine of SEK 1 billion.
Finansinspektionen (FI) will hold a press conference on Thursday, 25 June, following the Board of Directors’ decision regarding the investigation into SEB AB’s governance and control of measures to combat money laundering in the bank’s subsidiaries in the Baltic countries.
JAK Medlemsbank (JAK) has been deficient in its work to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The bank is therefore being issued a remark and must pay an administrative fine of SEK 1.6 million.
