Drawing from detailed empirical analysis, interviews and consultations with key institutions and market participants, this report provides an assessment of the Swedish non-financial corporate bond market and formulates policy recommendations to address current and future challenges.
The empirical overview, which is based on original data, offers an account of how the market has developed during the past two decades, documenting in particular changes since the 2008 financial crisis with respect to market size, credit quality and issuer and investor profile. These developments are also considered in an international context, comparing the Swedish market with those in other countries. This overview is based on an OECD mapping report published in October 2022 titled The Swedish Corporate Bond Market and Bondholder Rights.
The report has been prepared by the OECD in co‑operation with the Swedish Corporate Governance Institute (SCGI). It is part of a broader SCGI project on Swedish capital markets, co-financed by the Nasdaq Nordic Foundation and Vinnova.
The report is part of the OECD Capital Market Series, which informs policy discussions on how capital markets can serve their important role of channelling financial resources from households to productive investments in the real economy.
Detailed descriptions of the data sources, selected indicators and the methodology for data collection and analysis are provided in the Annex. The report also draws from fact-finding missions and consultations with representatives of both government institutions and market participants, including the Swedish Riksbank, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen), Nasdaq Stockholm, leading legal and financial advisors, banks, issuers, agents and stakeholder organisations. The report has benefitted greatly from these interviews and consultations, and the team gratefully acknowledges the participants’ important contributions.
The report was prepared by a team from the OECD composed of Carl Magnus Magnusson and Alejandra Medina, led by Serdar Çelik, Head of the Capital Markets and Financial Institutions Division within the OECD Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, together with a team from the SCGI composed of Mats Isaksson, co-Director of the SCGI, and Erik Lidman, co-Director of the SCGI and Associate Professor at the Universities of Stockholm and Gothenburg.