EEA and the Financial Services Sectors in Sweden

This Report tries to assess the consequences for Banking and Insurance in Sweden of entering the EEA (or EU, as it turned out to be). A pervasive concept used in the analysis is that of *market contestability*, linking the conduct and structure of markets to barriers to entry. Changes in contestability caused by changes in the financial regulatory system, asides other driving factors, are presumed to constitute a main source of dynamism in the financial sector. After identifying the essential features of the EU/EEA legal system concerning financial markets, the report identifies the main changes in Sweden's financial regulation occasioned by entering the EU/EEA and the foreseeable consequences for market structure and performance in Banking and Insurance.