The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority is taking steps toward an increased consumer protection

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Sw. Finansinspektionen) believes that the consumer’s position in the financial market in general is good despite significant conflicts of interest and complexity of many services.
The range of financial services and the options have increased in the past decade. This leads to more financial decisions and an increased exposure to various risks, and places greater demands on the consumer’s knowledge.

Currently, The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority together with the Swedish Consumer Agency (Sw. Konsumentverket) monitors different parts of consumer protection in the financial field. While the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority’s activities is based on the financial regulations for the companies that conducts financial activity, the Swedish Consumer Agency has a more general responsibility based on a comprehensive market regulatory perspective.

To further enhance the consumer protection, The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority is starting a new area of operations which aims to enhance the focus on consumer protection issues, and thus strengthen the consumer’s position in the financial market.

Due to that a great number of new European regulations and directives are in the pipeline and the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority continuously receives new regulatory tasks, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority expands to able the monitoring of activities related to consumer protection. The new area of operations will begin its work on April 1, 2014.