Swedish Reichsbank

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Swedish Reichsbank
Sveriges riksbank
Headquarters Stockholm , Sweden
founding September 17, 1668
president Stefan Ingves
country Sweden
currency

Swedish crown

ISO 4217 SEK
Currency reserves SEK 538.4 billion (2016)
Website

riksbank.se

predecessor

Palm Bush Bank

List of central banks

The Swedish Reichsbank ( Swedish Sveriges riksbank ) is the central bank of Sweden . It is an authority of the Swedish Parliament and a member of the European System of Central Banks .

The Reichsbank is run by a board of six members. The board members are elected by the Reichsbank Committee (swed. Riksbanksfullmäktige ) for six years, with one member being elected annually. The eleven members of the Reichsbank committee are elected by the Reichstag, with the composition of the committee reflecting the political composition of the Reichstag.

The Swedish Riksbank has sole responsibility for Swedish monetary policy, but not for monetary policy. The general guidelines for monetary policy are made by the government, but the Reichsbank is responsible for their implementation. The Reichsbank also has a monopoly on the issue of banknotes and coins. The Reichsbank is independent in carrying out its tasks and is not allowed to accept any instructions.

Seat

Headquarters of the Reichsbank

The Swedish Reichsbank is based in Stockholm . The head office is housed in the Riksbankshuset (Reichsbank building). The building was constructed in 1970 by the architect Peter Celsing in a brutalist style.

history

It has long been considered the oldest central bank in the world. According to Ulrich Bindseil , the Hamburg bank , founded in 1619, already fulfilled all the criteria of a central bank and was therefore created much earlier. It is one of the six central banks in France and Germany before the 18th century. The plans and objectives of the Bank of Stockholm, written in German in 1652 in a letter from Johan Palmstruch to the King of Sweden, appear to be an important link between the history of central banks in continental Europe and Sweden.

The Swedish Reichsbank was created through the takeover of the Palmstruch Bank or Stockholms Bank . The Palmstruch Bank, modeled on the Bank of Amsterdam, was given the right to issue banknotes on November 30, 1656, the first in Europe.

The cause was the decline of the copper currency in the 1660s, which had been introduced after the Thirty Years' War to replace the scarce silver and gold. Copper was abundant in the Falun mines. Because of the low material value, this copper money consisted of heavy copper bars that were very unwieldy, but were recently issued with 17% less weight.

Because of the decline in value compared to the Silberthaler, the citizens wanted to get their old copper plates back to sell them according to their metal value. The transition to receipts was a relief here, the "Kreditivsedlar" were issued for four currencies. The royal council accepted the notes as legal tender, which could also be used by people who did not have bank deposits. They were payable to the owner. Over time, the copper cover was also abolished. As early as 1663, inflation set in, which hit the lower income groups in particular, but also the nobles, who were unable to repay their loans. This brought the bank into financial difficulties so that the state had to bail them out, which put a strain on the budget. The state had to save them from bankruptcy, which in turn led to budgetary difficulties. The real estate crisis brought about a banking and currency crisis and finally a sovereign debt crisis, which Hendrik Mäkeler compares with the financial crisis of 2008 .

Due to an over-issuance of banknotes from 1661 onwards, the bank went bankrupt in 1668 and was re-established as Riksen's Ständers Bank by the Swedish Parliament to restore confidence in the banking system. It was divided into a “bad bank” and a “good bank”.

The issuing of banknotes was cautiously resumed only in 1701. In the 19th century, private banks were also allowed to issue banknotes, but they could be redeemed for Reichsbank notes. In 1866 the name of the bank was changed to the current name. In 1897 the Reichsbank got the monopoly on the issue of banknotes, and from 1904 onwards only the banknotes of the Reichsbank were regarded as means of payment . With this, the Reichsbank also took control of monetary policy in Sweden.

In 1968, the Riksbank celebrated its 300th anniversary and donated for the occasion the price of the Sveriges Riksbank to economics, as Wirtschaftsnobelpreis known because it is dedicated to the memory of Alfred Nobel and awarded for similar criteria as the real Nobel Prizes.

In 2009, the Swedish Reichsbank became the first central bank in the world to adopt a negative interest rate .

Current development

The Swedish krona is not part of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) II , which is also known as the "Euro waiting area". On September 14, 2003, Sweden rejected membership of the European Economic and Monetary Union by 56.2 to 41.8 percent in a referendum. According to Sweden's accession treaty to the EU, the country has to adopt the euro and therefore has no choice. In contrast, Great Britain and Denmark have a contractually agreed right to “ opt-out ”, that is, to permanently not join. Sweden is currently preventing the introduction of the euro by failing to join the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM) II and thereby (deliberately) failing to meet the criteria for introducing the euro.

In April 2011, the Reichsbank published the motifs for the new banknotes (portraits of Astrid Lindgren , Evert Taube , Greta Garbo , Ingmar Bergman , Birgit Nilsson and Dag Hammarskjöld ). In 2015 and 2016, they were introduced in two stages, plus coins. Only the 10 kroner coins remain valid. A 200 kroner banknote has been in existence since October 2015. In addition, from October 2016 two-crown pieces will be issued for the first time since 1971.

In international comparison, the amount of cash in the country is low. There are (as of 2018) only 57 billion crowns in circulation. Less than 20 percent of transactions are made with cash, while in Germany it is over 75 percent. Numerous bank branches and shops work exclusively with electronic payments. On the one hand, this has led to a sharp decrease in bank robberies , but also to a significant increase in credit card fraud . The Swedish Reichsbank assumes, however, that cash will continue to be used until the 2030s.

The Reichsbank is also evaluating the introduction of a so-called e-krona. This could be issued blockchain-based or every citizen would have an account with the central bank. Like cash, this electronic money would be subject to Swedish monetary policy .

Head of the Swedish Reichsbank

First deputy (Förste deputerad)

President of the Reichsbank (Riksbank chief)

See also

Web links

Commons : Swedish Reichsbank  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/about-the-riksbank/history/
  2. ^ Sweden Foreign Exchange Reserves . tradingeconomics.com. Accessed on January 28, 2017 (English)
  3. ^ Ulrich Bindseil: Some Pre-1800 French and German Central Bank Charters and Regulations . In: SSRN Electronic Journal . 2018, ISSN  1556-5068 , doi : 10.2139 / ssrn.3177810 ( ssrn.com [accessed May 30, 2020]).
  4. ↑ Ulrich Bindseil: Central Banking before 1800: A Rehabilitation . Oxford University Press, 2019, ISBN 978-0-19-258992-7 ( com.ph [accessed May 30, 2020]).
  5. ↑ Steffen Elkiær Andersen: The Origins and Nature of Scandinavian Central Banking . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-39750-4 ( com.ph [accessed May 30, 2020]).
  6. ↑ Steffen Elkiær Andersen: The Origins and Nature of Scandinavian Central Banking . Springer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-319-39750-4 ( com.ph [accessed May 30, 2020]).
  7. ↑ Wiséhn I .: Sweden's Stockholm Banco and the first European bank notes. In: Hewitt, V .: The Banker's Art. Studies in Paper Money , London, British Museum Press, 1995.
  8. ↑ Wilhelm Schmidt: The Reichsbank current account . In: Intercourse with the bank . Springer Berlin Heidelberg, Berlin, Heidelberg 1920, ISBN 978-3-662-24287-2 , pp. 55-56 , doi : 10.1007 / 978-3-662-26401-0_5 .
  9. ↑ Jutta Hoffritz: The dream of easy money. In: The time . October 20, 2016, accessed June 22, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Wiséhn I .: Sweden's Stockholm Banco and the first European bank notes. In: Hewitt, V., The Banker's Art. Studies in Paper Money, London, British Museum Press, 1995.
  11. ↑ Sebastian Balzter: Is the e-crown coming ?: Sweden is reinventing money . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed May 30, 2020]).
  12. ^ Sydsvenska Dagbladet - Sweden: Swedish Central Bank adopts negative interest rate. (No longer available online.) In: eurotopics. Federal Agency for Civic Education, July 3, 2009, archived from the original on March 10, 2010 ; Retrieved October 12, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eurotopics.net
  13. ^ Website "Münz-News", accessed on May 16, 2010
  14. ^ Swedish Reichsbank: New banknotes and coins (accessed August 17, 2015)
  15. ↑ Roman Tyborski: Cashless Sweden - Without crown is life dangerous. In: Wirtschaftswoche . May 22, 2018, accessed June 22, 2020 .
  16. ↑ The cashless society is getting closer and closer. In: Svenska Dagbladet , March 4, 2016 (Swedish).
  17. ↑ riksbank.se , E-krona project reports
  18. ↑ Philipp Anz: Sweden is testing the E-Krona. In: inside-it.ch. February 21, 2020, accessed February 22, 2020 .
  19. ↑ https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/about-the-riksbank/organisation/the-executive-board/stefan-ingves/

Coordinates: 59 ° 19 '54.9 "  N , 18 ° 3' 57.4"  E