Are the banks earning more than ever?
Short answer: In kronor, yes. Banks in Sweden had an operating profit of 155 billion kronor in 2025, the highest since Statistics Sweden's series starts in 2000 and 77 percent more than in 2019. Almost all of the increase came from net interest income, which doubled when the Riksbank raised its rate in 2022 and 2023 and the banks raised deposit rates more slowly than lending rates. As return on equity the difference is smaller: 15.5 percent in 2025 against 15.0 percent in 2019. The risk tax brought the state 6.7 billion kronor in 2024. S, V and MP want an extra tax on the profits; M, KD, L and SD are against.
More about money: State budget shows what the state takes in and spends, The electricity price what electricity costs, Who owns the homes the interest deduction and who owns the homes. How much households have borrowed and how many are in debt with the Enforcement Authority is on Household debt.
What the banks have earned since 2000.
Billion kronor per year from the banks' annual reports, the whole group in all countries. Nordea reports in euro and is converted at the year's average rate. Operating profit is profit before tax; net profit is after tax. Constant prices are converted with the CPI to the latest year's prices. All banks in Sweden is Statistics Sweden's financial statements for banks as legal entities, which may include dividends from subsidiaries and where Nordea only counts with its Swedish branch since the bank moved its seat to Finland in October 2018.
Profits have gone through three phases. Before the financial crisis they rose steadily. In 2008 and 2009 they fell, and Swedbank made a loss in 2009 after its loans in the Baltics went bad. In the years of low and negative policy rates, 2015 to 2021, profits were fairly flat. During the pandemic in 2020 they fell somewhat, mostly because the banks set money aside for credit losses that then largely failed to materialise.
From 2022 rates rose, and profits rose more than at any time since 2000. In kronor it is a record. Return on equity, the profit relative to the owners' capital, has not risen as much, because the banks also hold more capital today than before the financial crisis. Return on equity was about as high in 2006 and 2007 as in 2023 and 2024.
Net interest income accounts for the increase.
Billion kronor per year. Net interest income is interest income minus interest expenses; net fee income is fees for funds, cards, payments and advice minus the bank's own fees.
A bank earns money in two main ways. It lends at a higher rate than it pays for deposits and funding, and it charges for services. In the years of low rates fees grew, especially for funds. Since 2022 it is net interest income that has increased, while fees have grown at about the earlier pace.
The policy rate, the mortgage rate and the savings rate.
Percent per month since 2005. The policy rate is the Riksbank's average for the month. The mortgage rate is the average for new variable rate mortgages to households, fixed for at most three months. The deposit rate is the banks' average rate on all household deposit accounts, transaction accounts separately. The margin is the difference from the policy rate in percentage points.
The margin against the policy rate is not the bank's profit. The bank also borrows on the market at rates that move differently from the policy rate, must hold capital against its loans, pays into the deposit guarantee and the resolution fund and carries the risk that loans are not repaid. But the change in the margin shows how the split between bank and customer shifts when rates move.
When the policy rate was near zero the banks could not cut deposit rates much below zero, so the deposit margin was near zero or negative. When rates rose, mortgage rates followed almost at once while deposit rates rose slowly. The deposit margin then grew, and that explains most of the higher net interest income.
How quickly rates follow up and down.
How much of the change in the policy rate, in percent, has reached the rate. The hikes are counted from April 2022 to October 2023 (the policy rate from 0 to 4 percent), the cuts from April 2024 to October 2025 (from 4 to 1.75 percent). Over 100 percent means the rate moved more than the policy rate, for example because the market expected more hikes or cuts.
The mortgage rate followed the policy rate almost fully in both directions. Deposit rates followed more slowly upward than downward: when rates rose, just over half of the hike had reached savings accounts after a year and a half, but when they fell three quarters of the cut reached them in the same time. This asymmetry appears in research on many countries and is usually explained by few households switching banks for the sake of their savings account.
Swedish banks compared with other countries'.
Return on equity, percent per year, for the larger banks in each country that the EBA monitors. EU is the average for the EU and EEA, before 2020 including the United Kingdom. Norway is missing for 2021.
Swedish banks have long had a higher return than the EU average. In the years of negative rates the gap was large, as many banks in the euro area struggled after the debt crisis. Since 2023 banks in Spain and Italy have caught up, and the gap to the EU is smaller than before.
The tax the banks already pay.
Billion kronor per year according to the central government annual report. The latest year's outcome is preliminary and is usually the same figure as the year before until it is revised. The forecast is the government's in the budget bill for 2026.
The risk tax was introduced in 2022. It is levied on credit institutions' liabilities, not on profit, and applies only to groups with liabilities above a threshold: 150 billion kronor in 2022 and 197 billion in 2026. The rate was 0.05 percent of liabilities in 2022 and 0.06 percent from 2023 to 2025. From 2026 it is 0.07 percent, but each group may then deduct the threshold, so that a group just above it does not face a big jump in tax. In 2023 about 30 companies in nine groups paid. The tax is deductible against corporate income tax, so the net for the state is lower.
The Riksbank opposed the proposal in 2021, because the tax is not linked to how much risk the banks take and is not earmarked for handling crises. The government has assumed that the tax is not passed on to customers and calls the question of who ultimately pays an empirical one.
What the parties' bank taxes would have raised.
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Social Democrats
A temporary tax of 23 percent on the part of net interest income that exceeds 150 percent of a historical average, only for the banks' Swedish operations. According to the party it would raise about 10 billion kronor in the 2024 budget motion, 16 billion in 2025 and 12 billion in 2026; the spring motion of 2026 says 4 billion. The party has not stated which years the average covers.
Motions 2023/24:2645, 2024/25:3190, 2025/26:3553 and 2025/26:4101.
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Left Party
A tax of 50 percent on the banks' excess profits from 2026 to 2028, where excess profit is the operating profit of banks in Sweden above the average for 2018 to 2022, about 88 billion kronor according to the party's background paper. The party expects about 10 billion per year and calls this a very cautious estimate.
Exercise 2025/26:2792, section 10.4, and the party's calculation from August 2023.
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Green Party
A tax on net interest income that according to the party raises 12.5 billion kronor in 2026; earlier motions stated 16 billion for 2025 and 10 billion for 2024. Rate and threshold are not given, so the proposal cannot be recalculated here.
Motions 2025/26:3770, 2024/25:3220 and 2023/24:2689.
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Other parties and the government
M, KD, L and SD are against a new bank tax, and C has not backed one. Parliament rejected the Social Democrats' proposal in the autumn of 2025. The government has asked an inquiry to review how banks are taxed, including a tax based on net interest income; it is due to report in January 2027.
Företagarna (September 2026) and the committee terms of reference.
Billion kronor per year, computed as if the tax had existed every year, on Statistics Sweden's figures for all banks in Sweden. The Social Democrats' proposal on net interest income, the Left Party's on operating profit. The period 2013 to 2022 is the years the party's own 2024 budget motion shows in its chart, not a statement from the party about the tax. Bank behaviour is assumed unchanged, and no account is taken of the tax reducing corporate income tax.
Both formulas compare with an average of earlier years, so they raise almost nothing before 2022: profits were then close to the average. During the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 neither would have raised anything to speak of. After the rate hikes the Left Party's formula raises more than the party itself expects, because operating profit in Statistics Sweden's figures rose more than the party assumed. The Social Democrats' formula raises about what the party stated in 2024, with the assumed average.
A bank tax at your rate.
Billion kronor, Statistics Sweden's figures for all banks in Sweden. The average for net interest income follows the choice under the proposals above. The tax is computed before corporate income tax and with no change in bank behaviour.
What the bank's margin means in kronor.
Kronor per year. The starting rates are the latest month's average for new variable rate mortgages and for household deposits. The margin is your rate minus the policy rate; it also covers the bank's funding, capital, fees to the state and risk, so it is not profit.
Rates can be negotiated. The banks publish their average rates every month, and comparing with the list rate often shows that the average is lower. For savings, accounts with a deposit guarantee at smaller banks often pay more than the big banks' savings accounts.
Bank taxes in Europe since 2022.
About half of EU countries have introduced new taxes on banks since rates rose in 2022, according to the IMF. Some of them resemble the Swedish proposals.
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Spain
4.8 percent of net interest and fee income in Spain for the largest banks, 2023 and 2024, later redesigned. In 2023 it raised 1,263 million euro.
EY, Forbes España (April 2024).
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Lithuania
60 percent of net interest income above 150 percent of the average for the previous four years, from May 2023, later extended for defence. About 250 million euro in 2023 and 230 million in 2024.
Lietuvos bankas 2023 and 2024.
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Czechia
60 percent on profit above 120 percent of the 2018 to 2021 average, 2023 to 2025; the model for the Left Party's proposal. The government first expected 33 billion Czech koruna from the banks in 2023, but the finance minister later expected about 1 billion, because the banks could shift profits to other parts of the group.
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Italy
40 percent of the increase in net interest income, once in 2023. Banks could instead set aside two and a half times the tax in a locked reserve, and almost all large banks chose that. The forecast was 2 to 3 billion euro.
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Hungary
An extra tax on financial institutions since 2022, with a target of 250 billion forint per year in 2022 and 2023 and 370 billion in 2026. Banks could halve it in 2024 by buying government bonds.
Portfolio 2024 and 2025; IMF WP/24/143.
Who ultimately pays a bank tax?
A tax levied on banks can be paid by the owners through lower profit, or by customers through higher lending rates and lower savings rates. The studies point in different directions depending on how the tax is designed. No study of a Swedish bank tax, or of a tax on profit above a historical average, has been found.
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Customers paid a large share: Spain's mortgage tax
When Spain in 2018 moved a tax on mortgages from the borrower to the bank, mortgage rates rose by about 10 basis points, equivalent to around 80 percent of the bank's cost. Most for low income borrowers and where there were few banks.
Jiménez, Martínez-Miera and Peydró (2024), Who truly bears (bank) taxes?, Journal of Public Economics.
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Customers paid: taxes on bank liabilities in the EU
In 23 EU countries from 2007 to 2013, levies on bank liabilities raised both lending rates and interest margins, most in markets with few banks. In Hungary the tax from 2010 was passed on to the customers least able to switch, mainly households.
Kogler (2019), International Tax and Public Finance; Capelle-Blancard and Havrylchyk (2017), Review of Finance.
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Partly: Germany's bank levy
The banks most affected by the German levy from 2011 lent less and changed deposit rates, but for the average bank no effect was seen. A later review found on average 8 basis points higher lending rates at the most affected banks.
Buch, Hilberg and Tonzer (2016), Journal of Banking & Finance; SUERF Policy Brief 804 (2024).
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No clear pass-through: Spain's tax on net interest income
Spain's central bank found no noticeable differences in interest margin between banks that paid the tax in 2023 and banks that did not. The authors note that the effect is hard to isolate, because the ECB raised rates at the same time. It is the study closest to the Swedish proposals.
Estrada García and Pérez Montes (2024), Banco de España, Documento Ocasional 2408.
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Assessments in Sweden and from the institutions
Lars Calmfors judges that a bank tax would probably be passed on to customers through wider interest margins. The Moderates have estimated 7,000 kronor per year on a mortgage of 3 million, if the tax is fully passed on. The IMF judges that the profits after 2022 mainly reflect slow pass-through to deposit rates and are probably temporary, and suggests higher capital requirements as an alternative to tax. The ECB warned in 2022 that Spain's tax could weaken bank capital and lending.
Calmfors (2026), IFN; the Moderates via Företagarna; IMF WP/24/143; ECB CON/2022/36.
Where the figures come from.
- The banks' annual reports and Nordea's fact book: operating profit, net profit, return on equity, net interest income and net fee income from the five year summaries, Handelsbanken, SEB and Swedbank from 2000, Nordea from 2007.
- SCB (CC0): financial statements for banks from 2000 (FM0402), rates on new mortgages and on household deposits from 2005, and the CPI.
- The Riksbank: the policy rate per month and the euro exchange rate per year.
- EBA Risk Dashboard (European Banking Authority, free reuse with attribution): return on equity by country from 2015.
- The central government annual report and the budget bill for 2026: risk tax revenue. The Risk Tax Act (2021:1256) and government bills 2021/22:26 and 2024/25:188: rate, threshold and who pays.
- Parliamentary motions, the parties' background papers and the cited studies and reports, linked where they are used.
The parties' taxes are calculated on the page.