Bankers saw the “tsunami of regulations” – Swedish Dagbladet

Bankers’ Association chief executive Hans Lindberg in SvD banking Summit. Photo: Magnus Hjalmarsson Neideman

It’s crowded in the lecture hall at the Grand Hotel where SvD Business holding this year’s Banking Summit. Digitization and industry changes were the hot topics.

Bankers Association CEO Hans Lindberg started the day by talking about the banks’ challenges in terms of new regulations and changes to tax.

– Since the financial crisis, it has been a tsunami of regulations concerning the banking sector, says Hans Lindberg, adding jokingly that they are so numerous that he failed to learn any more.

he notes that there is an extra buffer of the Swedish banks at 10 percent, and that it is not always better with higher margins. Have you reached a certain level of security as it may be enough, he says.

Hans Lindberg believes that there is a lack of holistic thinking. The regulations are many and they come from various sources – both domestic and European level. Additionally occurs constantly changes.

– This fall, the Basel Committee to discuss risk weight floors. I think that the Committee for discussion a little too much based on American conditions, he said.

Hans Lindberg also believes that the regulations do not bite the banks in the US and there is a risk that the new regulations being discussed will not bite right in the EU either. Instead, there is a risk that they hit against the jobs and growth, especially in Sweden.

According to the Banking Association’s calculations risks the banks is the best to date, the most affected by the new rules, which he thinks is wrong .

He urges Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson to ensure that safeguarding Swedish interests, so that Sweden does not lose growth and job opportunities.

– I hope that the government is on their toes when it comes to new Basel Rules he says.

he believes while the Finance Inspection should consider how the Swedish regulations look like, so that these better harmonization of rules at EU level.

Hans Lindberg turns out, not surprisingly be very critical of the proposal to charge VAT on financial services. Equally critical is he that the government proposed to introduce a new tax on employees in the financial sector – a kind of payroll tax.

He believes that these two proposals are harmful to the Swedish economy and households will be disadvantaged by the new tax rules. In addition, there are risks that ten thousand jobs in the Swedish banking sector will be lost.

– I urge the government to scrap the proposal for a tax on financial services, he said.

Banks pressed also from other parts of digitization. Especially when it comes to digital payment solutions are many small agile players naggar banks’ business in the edge. One that has grown strong are Klarna. The company’s CEO and founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski was not slow to distribute boots to the established big banks during his hour on stage.

– The digital issue was far down the banks’ organization when I founded Klarna, said Sebastian Siemiatkowski and notes that the issue has climbed up as digitization is grown.

But banks are slow moving and rarely takes the right decisions in their quest to retain as much as possible of its banking business, he said.

– Customers want the simple payment solution, and ignore the bank’s loyalty program.

While aiming Klarna becoming bank and has sought the permission of FI.

– We will not become a full bank, and deal with the mortgage. Our ambition is to work with the payments. But we can imagine to create partnerships with others in the long run, quite naturally in a network economy that encourages each other, he said.