Den naturliga ordningen : Makt och intressen i de svenska sparbankerna 1882-1968

Sammanfattning: The aim of this thesis has been to analyse how savings banks were integrated into the Swedish financial system from the end of the 19 th century until 1968. The study has focused on two questions. The fist deals with different viewpoints regarding the role of Savings banks in the credit market and which of these viewpoints had an impact on the regulation of savings banks. The second questions studied in this thesis concerns which actors had control over the savings banks and their regulation. In this thesis I have shown that the question of the role of savings banks in the financial system is complex. During the entire period being studied, savings banks were local organisations and the ideas that were put forward regarding their role on the credit market were greatly affected by how the credit market were organised on the local level. Sudden changes were rare within the savings banks' movement. As I have shown, during the period being studied, there were many different points of view regarding the role of savings banks in the financial system. Without outside pressure in the form of legislation, however, the savings banks themselves would hardly have succeeded in agreeing on and developing new operations. The slow but apparent changes in the position of savings banks on the Swedish financial market were closely connected to changes in power structures in Swedish society. Up until the inter-war period, the local elite - both economic and political - were closely involved with the development of savings banks. Gradually, however, national elite groups, that is political parties and the savings banks' central organisation, increased their control over local savings banks. At the same time as this change strengthened the role of savings banks as in some measure a public organisation, it also helped to expand their sphere of activity.