The Intertwined Interest

The State, the Commercial Banks and Small Business Finance during the Supplementary Pension Reform, 1958–1962

Abstract

This article focuses on the interaction between the state and Swedish banks during the establishment of two institutes for small business credit, AB Industrikredit and AB Företagskredit, between 1958 and 1962. These institutes were established as intermediaries between the supplementary pension system and the credit market. We have been able to elucidate this process by the Swedish Bankers’ Association granting us privileged access to archival material on these negotiations.

It is demonstrated that the strong ideological conflict characterizing the parliamentary debate on the supplementary pensions system did not spill over into the system being implemented within the financial sector as this was organized through the examined credit institutes. Instead, the banks and the state were able to negotiate through established channels and arenas for business-government relations in the financial sector. Even if the parties initially exhibited mistrust based on different historical interpretations of the market for small business credit, they also recognized the degree of change that would be brought on by the supplementary pension system with regard to the financial markets and capital formation as a whole. Hence, they downplayed ideological differences and strived to reach an outcome
that was mutually beneficial in its final form. A crucial indication of this consensus is that fifty percent of each institute was owned by the state while the other fifty percent was owned by the bank