Response to interpellations 2025/26:527 and 528 on increased transparency and banks' responsibility in cases of fraud
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
M considers crime in the financial system to be a high-priority issue and that the government is working to ensure that banks take greater responsibility 1. M argues that the crime profits from telephone fraud have decreased significantly and that the government has pushed back the fraud profits by 60 percent 1 2 3. M criticizes S for having been naive and negligent in the fight against organized crime 4. M emphasizes that the banking system and the police have been brought together to restore safety 4. M argues that information exchange has been increased and that actors capable of monitoring the entire financial system have been used 2. S argues that fraud finances organized crime and that the number of victims is increasing 5. S considers that the government's measures are judged as insufficient by the OECD 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Finansmarknadsministern Niklas Wykman (M)
Mr. Speaker! Eva Lindh has asked me if I will work to ensure that the new European regulation on protection against payment service fraud covers small businesses and micro-enterprises to a greater extent, if I see a need to introduce a basic business protection for small business owners who are exposed to fraud within the financial area, what measures I intend to take to strengthen small business owners' protection against bank-related fraud and social manipulation, and how I intend to ensure that the work against fraud against entrepreneurs becomes a clearer part of the government's work against organized crime.
Furthermore, Eva Lindh has asked me whether I assess that today's level of transparency gives bank customers sufficient opportunities to make informed decisions regarding the choice of bank, what additional measures I intend to take to strengthen the banks' responsibility to prevent fraud, whether I will work to ensure that banks take greater financial responsibility for customers who are subjected to fraud in line with developments within the EU, how I view the role of the banks and the financial system in the government's work against organized crime, and whether I assess that the efforts against fraud have been sufficiently prioritized so far.
Countering crime is one of the government's highest priorities. This also applies to crime in the financial system.
The vast majority of frauds presuppose that criminals misuse products and services provided by the banks. As part of the work against fraud, the government held several meetings with representatives from the banks and the Police Authority during 2024 and 2025. The purpose was, among other things, to discuss how the banks can take greater responsibility and how the cooperation between the banks and the Police Authority can be strengthened. The banks then presented a package of measures with several proposals to strengthen customer protection. It is the view of the banks and the police that the work has been successful.
The Government is continuously monitoring that the banks' measures are being implemented and are having an effect. It is positive that the crime profits from telephone fraud, so-called vishing, have decreased significantly since the peak in 2023.
A review of the EU's payment services framework is currently underway. The Government is positive about the framework being reviewed and welcomes the European Commission's approach to combating fraud. A political agreement in the negotiations was reached in November 2025.
The new regulatory framework – a new EU regulation and a new EU directive – contains new requirements for banks to take preventive measures aimed at preventing and hindering customers from being exposed to payment fraud. This particularly concerns requirements on transaction monitoring and the conditions for the exchange of information between banks regarding suspected fraud.
The compensation rules in the new regulatory framework mean, as today, that there is a general right to compensation in cases of unauthorized transactions under certain conditions. Furthermore, a specific rule is proposed which means that the individual, under certain conditions, has a right to compensation if the fraudster pretends to represent the bank.
The rules in the new payment services framework apply as a rule regardless of whether the customer is a consumer or a business operator.
When the new regulatory framework has been adopted, the rules that are not directly applicable shall be implemented into Swedish law. I do not want to anticipate that work.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! Fraud is today one of Sweden's fastest-growing areas of crime. Every day, private individuals and business owners are exposed to advanced frauds, where life savings and business capital can disappear in a few minutes. We have 90 police-reported bank frauds per day plus a significant dark figure of unreported bank frauds.
The police warn of a sharp increase in fraud targeting the elderly. I meet many pensioner organizations, and after each meeting, when I have raised these issues, people come forward and tell about how they themselves, relatives, or friends have been deceived. They do not bring it up when everyone hears, but they bring it up afterwards. They tell about lost savings, about worry, and about shame. Many feel exactly that, shame, even though it is actually the perpetrators who should feel shame.
I also want to highlight the situation of small business owners, as thousands of small businesses are affected by fraud every year. Many lack legal resources and economic margins. The organization Företagarna has shown that more business owners report financial losses as a result of fraud today than just a few years ago. At the same time, 38 percent of business owners state that they never report the crimes they are subjected to.
This is not just a consumer problem with difficult and very sad effects for those affected. It is also one of the organized crime's most important sources of income. We often talk about shootings and explosions when we discuss gang crime, which is understandable. The violence that still plagues our country must be fought with full force. But if we are to understand organized crime, we must also understand this: Behind the weapons are the money, and behind the money are, to an ever-increasing extent, frauds and naturally the economic crime in general.
It is about individual crime victims, but it is naturally also about Sweden's ability to tackle economic crime and the criminal economy. The OECD has directed sharp criticism at Sweden's work against corporate-related economic crime and international corruption. The OECD notes that too few investigations lead to prosecutions, that too few prosecutions lead to convictions, and that companies are rarely held accountable to the extent that international standards require.
It should have been a wake-up call for the government. If we are to strike at the criminal economy, we must also attack the financial flows and the frauds that nourish organized crime.
The police themselves say that they will not be able to investigate away the fraud crimes. There are too many of them, and the clearance rate is too low. Only 2–3 percent of the reported crimes are solved. Therefore, the focus must lie on preventing the crimes.
Mr. Speaker! My questions have been many, and I therefore divided them into two different interpellations. Now the Minister chose to combine the two interpellations into one. I can only regret that, as it gives us short time to debate this.
I still hope that the Minister can provide answers to the questions that I have asked.
Finansmarknadsministern Niklas Wykman (M)
Mr. Speaker! Eva Lindh has received answers to all her questions in the response that I have just read out.
The fraudsters who commit this type of crime and have made it their life's mission to deceive others, those who have the audacity and the bottomless lack of conscience to spend their days and evenings taking from other people not only their money but in many cases also their last security and trust in society, shall sit in prison – for a long time. They shall face our society's collective strength and resistance.
Magdalena Andersson, the leader of the Social Democrats, is known for being careless and cheating with what she takes on. But the question is whether this area is not what suffered the most from the type of blindness, ignorance, and incompetence that the previous government exhibited. How could one allow such gross and serious crime to grow without taking any measures?
Everything has not become perfect, and much work remains. The negligence that the Social Democrats exhibited in the fight against organized crime cannot be washed away quickly and easily; instead, many measures are required. The failure regarding crime fighting in Sweden, which Eva Lindh was involved in building up and which led to catastrophes for individuals affected by fraud, cannot be conjured away; instead, measure after measure is required.
On the positive side, we have pushed back the fraud profits by 60 percent. Parts of the damage that Eva Lindh, Magdalena Andersson and the Socialdemokraterna caused to Sweden by not taking measures against the crimes are now being pushed back, but we are far from finished. Many people I meet are very worried that Eva Lindh, the Socialdemokraterna and their coalition parties will return with their cluelessness and their lack of measures against the crimes. Or, as the Socialdemokraterna have summarized it: "We have been naive." Yes, Eva Lindh, you were naive, and it had terrible consequences.
What we have done is that we have consolidated the banking system and the police and introduced a long series of changes in our laws and regulations to get back the safety in Sweden. We also see the results of that. But I question how one can still be so clueless regarding this crime.
All these different weaknesses and flaws are used together to harm individual people and enrich one's own criminal activities. One example is that hawala, the informal system for transferring money, could previously be praised as something good from the red-green side. Now, instead, we are criminalizing hawala. It is just one example of yet another blind spot in this area.
I am glad that Eva Lindh sees that the work is now beginning to yield results. I am also convinced, or at least hopeful, that Eva Lindh, to the extent that she gains influence moving forward, will not return to these historical mistakes and what the Social Democrats themselves have described as naivety.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! After four years as Minister for Financial Markets, the minister still repeatedly returns to what has and has not been done previously. He should take responsibility for his own policy during the four years that he himself has been in charge.
It sounds like the Minister for Finance is satisfied with how the situation looks regarding fraud in Sweden. I would not be if I were the Minister for Finance. The frauds continue, so I think that the Moderaterna perhaps have not looked at the statistics that exist. We have big problems with fraud, and many feel great concern.
The Minister for Finance says that he has answered all my questions, but he has not. I therefore intend to return to trying to get answers to the questions I have asked.
The Minister has very often spoken about the conversations he had with the banks during 2023 and 2024. I wonder if he is as satisfied with what has emerged from those conversations as he is with how the statistics on fraud look.
There is still an enormous amount left to do, and I have, for example, asked whether the Minister considers that today's level of transparency gives bank customers sufficient opportunities to make informed decisions in the choice of bank. On several occasions, the Minister for Finance has namely said that this is not something that one even needs to look at; one simply has to call the banks and request the statistics, and then one gets what one needs.
The Minister for Finance should perhaps look at, for example, what Villaägarna did. They chose to take the minister at his word and asked the banks for their bank fraud statistics, to see if the information can actually be obtained in practice. The result shows that it cannot: 23 banks said no, and the rest did not respond, despite reminders.
What one could at least consider, but which the Minister for Finance does not comment on, is a change so that it is possible to obtain statistics at an aggregated level. Freedom of choice, which the Moderates very often say they safeguard, is based on the fact that people should be able to make informed choices. The Minister has, however, said that it is very difficult to understand that statistics and that they can be difficult to interpret. But according to the Minister, the Swedish people manage very well to compare school results, healthcare queues, interest rates, fees, and energy prices, so why would people not be able to compare the statistics that the banks could have the opportunity to produce?
I therefore still wonder what the Minister's position is on this. Is he prepared to do something about it? Is the Minister satisfied that the OECD indirectly says that Sweden is the worst in class when it comes to the handling of economic crime? Is he very satisfied with that too? Compared to other countries, it is very difficult in Sweden today to prosecute a legal person, that is to say a company. Is the Minister prepared to do something about that in order to seriously tackle the economic crime of which the frauds are a part?
Finansmarknadsministern Niklas Wykman (M)
Mr. Speaker! The member attributed some quotes to me. I assume that the member can state the sources of the quotes attributed to me or that I can receive them afterwards. I assume that the member maintains that standard in their manner of debating. Eva Lindh nods here, so I imagine that she will return in the next contribution with exactly where she has retrieved the quotes from. Very good! I look forward to it.
When the Social Democrats were responsible for this, an enormous amount of crime erupted in Sweden. We were described in international media as a country that was more or less on fire, Mr. Speaker. There were shootings, explosions, and gang settlements. There were people who were shot in the open street, and there were elderly people who had their safety destroyed and their life savings stolen.
Are all these problems solved? No, they are not, because the poison that Eva Lindh and the Socialdemokrater let eat its way into Swedish society has not been particularly easy to clean up. But how does Eva Lindh relate to the fact that the crime profits from fraud have decreased by 60 percent? Does Eva Lindh think it is good that the crime profits have decreased by 60 percent, or was it better with the Socialdemokraternas level? The profits are still too large, but was it better as it was before, before all the changes that we have implemented were in place?
Sweden's work in this area has also been intensive in the EU. We are working at all levels to push back crime. Where you were passive, naive, and aimless, Eva Lindh, and where people from the left even praised the systems used by criminals to in various ways launder or generate criminal profits – for example, the informal system hawala – we have taken measure after measure. Where you were blind, we have established a financial intelligence center where banks and the police sit together to monitor the financial system.
Has it not become better since you were in power, Eva Lindh? Name three things in this area that you think were better when you were in power than they are today!
Sweden has focused its efforts on increasing what yields results: having a good exchange of information in the financial system and, of course, also to the law enforcement authorities – for example, good monitoring systems – and in various ways using those actors who do not just have one institute or place of operation but can oversee the entire financial system. Is it not good that we have done it in that way?
We do not write cookbooks for criminals. Which pieces of information the Financial Supervisory Authority releases is a matter for the Financial Supervisory Authority; it is not for me as Minister to decide on. But let me make a comparison for those who believe that figures or available statistics are what alone solves the problem! As an example, we can take the list rates, which the banks provide information about. The Social Democrats think, on good grounds, that it is not sufficiently good information. It is clear that it is important to provide the consumer with good and accurate information.
Is a bank that only has very wealthy, highly educated and extremely financially knowledgeable customers, and therefore perhaps fewer customers who are exposed to fraudsters, automatically safer?
It is not entirely certain that it is that way. Therefore, it is necessary to think through what information one wants to provide and in what way. This is incredibly important. We shall give people the conditions to make good decisions, but we shall not write cookbooks for criminals.
Now I look forward to receiving the source for the quotes of what Eva Lindh said that I had said.
Eva Lindh (S)
Mr. Speaker! I will give the sources to the Minister for Finance, but I will not devote the entire short time remaining to this.
I want to conclude with what this is actually about. It is about the fact that fraud finances organized crime. It is about the fact that individual people, private individuals and entrepreneurs, are affected. These crimes are not decreasing. The Minister for Finance must surely acknowledge that? The number of crimes has not decreased, but more people are being affected. It is long-term savings that are being lost.
The crimes also look incredibly different. Now, a new judgment has also been issued which means it could become more difficult for private individuals to demand that the bank cover part of what they have lost. This means that the Minister for Finance has even more to do, not less. How is the minister going to handle this?
I mean that this is not just an economic crime but also organized crime. Sweden gets a very bad reputation here. What does the Minister for Finance say about this? The OECD sees the changes that this government has made during these four years – most of them we have naturally stood behind because we think they are good – but they assess that they are insufficient. They do not ensure that we will be able to tackle either the economic crime or the frauds.
Is the Minister for Finance satisfied, or is there anything else that the Minister for Finance is prepared to consider if he receives a new mandate after the autumn election?
Finansmarknadsministern Niklas Wykman (M)
Mr. Speaker! I asked Eva Lindh if I could have the source for the quotes she attributed to me. I did not get it, but I look forward to receiving it. I also asked Eva Lindh if she could mention one, perhaps two or even three things in this area that she considered were better when she and the Social Democrats were in power. Out there, the answer was also missing.
It may be that things have improved despite everything with this government, even when Eva Lindh is to account for it. On the other hand, what Eva Lindh said about this crime being at too high levels is correct. Admittedly, the crime profits from fraud, thanks to the measures we have taken, Mr. Speaker, have decreased by approximately 60 percent, but from very high levels. The Social Democrats allowed organized crime to eat its way deep into Swedish society and operate everywhere – everything from shootings on the street to our financial system, where fraud is such an example.
We are pooling our forces to push back this crime. I am pleased that Eva Lindh sees and stands behind several of the measures we have taken. It concerns everything from increased penalties and the Financial Intelligence Unit to the proposal to criminalize, for example, the informal hawala. By now having cash controls, one needs to report large cash exports even within the EU, to take another example.
In area after area, we are going harder at the criminals' money, whether it is about confiscating money that they have on them but cannot say where it comes from or about building more protective barriers in the financial system.
We must not forget who the criminal is here – who the real thieves are. It is not the banks. They should do more – they have the capacity to do so – but we must get to the unscrupulous people who commit these ruthless crimes. I look forward to doing so together with Eva Lindh and everyone else who wants to participate.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.