Sweden: A FinTech Overview

The Swedish FinTech sector has historically been prominent, and continues to rank highly competitively both within the EU and globally. FinTech operations are facing an increasingly regulated landscape as a result of new legislation, both from the EU and locally in Sweden.

Geopolitical uncertainty and trade barriers contribute to export difficulties, dampened activity in the financial markets and more cautious spending by consumers. These factors pose challenges to starting or growing as a company in the FinTech sector. However, these are global trends not exclusive to Sweden, and the Swedish financial position shows positive trends in strong public finances, as well as a significant strengthening of the Swedish krona.

Recent and current regulatory developments affecting the FinTech sector include:

• authorisation requirements for consumer credit companies;
• digital resilience requirements;
• authorisation and regulatory requirements for companies involved in crypto-related activities; and
• the modernisation of rules on distance contracts with consumers.

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority’s Regulatory Simplification Process

The Swedish FinTech sector is highly active in developing the legal and regulatory environment, and has taken the initiative to request enhanced transparency, dialogue and guidance from the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (SFSA). Despite already showing an impressive pace of innovation, the Swedish FinTech industry has requested an opportunity to test products and services in a financial regulatory sandbox, which is possible for competitors in certain other countries, in order to further drive innovation.

The SFSA has been dismissive of the initiative for a regulatory sandbox, but has recently been undergoing a simplification process that involves repealing a number of regulations to simplify reporting requirements, enabling reports and documentation to be submitted digitally, and increasing its dialogue with the industry.

Authorisation Requirements for Consumer Lenders and Brokers

As readily available loans and deferred payment options online have been on the rise, so has indebtedness among consumers in Sweden. In order to address this, and as a reaction to observations regarding shortcomings in consumer protection controls such as affordability assessments and fair marketing practices, the Swedish legislator has repealed the Swedish Act on Consumer Credit Operations, which previously enabled consumer credit brokers and consumer lenders to operate as so-called consumer credit institutions. Consumer credit institutions have been subject to authorisation requirements and supervision by the SFSA, but have not been subject to the same degree and extent of regulatory or capital requirements as banks and other credit institutions.

However, since July 2025, consumer lenders and consumer loan brokers are required to be licensed as credit institutions. Existing consumer credit institutions are permitted to continue operations for a transitional period of a year, and their operations may also continue during the application processing time, if they have applied for authorisation as a credit institution by that date.

Cybersecurity

Companies across a wide range of sectors are investing heavily in cybersecurity to protect sensitive financial information, maintain customer trust and comply with stringent regulatory requirements and industry standards. The EU Digital Resilience Regulation for the Financial Sector (DORA) has been in effect in Sweden since 17 January 2025, and has required many FinTech companies to dedicate considerable resources to their preparatory compliance efforts.

In addition to DORA, there is a legislative proposal for Sweden to introduce a new crisis management regime as of 1 July 2026. The proposal seeks to prevent and prepare for operational disruptions in the financial system, mainly by introducing a new public crisis management function headed by the Swedish Central Bank (Riksbanken), which will support the maintenance of a stable and effective financial system during an operational crisis. Its function would include specific tasks such as co-ordinating between private and public bodies in cases of operational disruptions, preparing impact assessments in case of incidents, taking inventory of available resources and mitigants to address disruptive events, etc.

Crypto-Asset Services

The EU Regulation on Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) has applied in Sweden since December 2024, marking an important step towards creating legal certainty for businesses, investors and consumers in relation to trading in crypto-assets, promoting innovation, introducing consumer and investor protection, and ensuring financial stability.

The SFSA has received a handful of applications under MiCA, as well as a number of notifications of cross-border activities (passporting) by crypto-asset service providers in other EU jurisdictions. The SFSA granted its first authorisation under MiCA in October 2025, after an approximately six-month processing period. Meanwhile, the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has reported that certain other EU jurisdictions (notably Malta) have shown shortcomings in the processing of authorisation applications, resulting in potential weaknesses that could also affect the EU as a whole due to possibilities of passporting.

On the crypto-asset issuer side, a notable development is that the Swedish bank SEB and Danske Bank have joined a collaboration with seven other European banks to launch a Euro-pegged stablecoin, as an initiative to provide an EU-based alternative to the US-dominated market for stablecoins. Reportedly, the current ambition is to go live with the stablecoin and related banking services around late 2026 or early 2027.

New Rules on Distance Contracts for Consumers

Due to digitalisation and the overlap in the EU regulatory framework for distance contracts in financial services and consumer protection, the EU has issued a new Financial Services Directive that revises the regulatory framework for distance contracts for financial services. The new Financial Services Directive amends the Consumer Rights Directive so that a large number of provisions will also apply to distance contracts for financial services. Furthermore, the new Financial Services Directive introduces a requirement for consumers to be able to withdraw from distance contracts concluded through an online interface using a cancellation function. In Sweden, the transposition of the new Financial Services Directive has been inquired and consulted on, and proposed legislative amendments are expected to enter into force on 19 June 2026.