Changing the Game – Financial Crisis, the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority and Reward Systems in Swedish Banks

As a consequence of the financial crisis new regulations initiated by organizations such as the Committee of European Banking Supervisors were imposed. The regulation aims to create a stable financial system where compensation is based on longer term with lower risk structure as a result. This paper describes how Sweden’s four largest banks have worked with the implementation of the regulation, especially when it comes to reward systems. Since the aim of the paper is to understand how the banks worked with the implementation semi-structured interviews were conducted with leading HRM managers in the banks. Written documentations and news material was also a part of the empirical material. Findings show that the majority of banks welcomed the regulation itself and in some cases the reward systems have been changed, especially when it comes to monetary incentives. Banks that previously had problems with short-term thinking has been positively affected by the changes, while banks that previously worked in accordance with the long-term thinking and low risk structure, have been affected to a lesser extent. One major conclusion is that the regulations are needed in order to handle risk management levels.