This is not only my opinion and the opinion of the Riksbank, it is also shared by the International Monetary Fund. In its Article IV review of Sweden's economy in 2016, the IMF concluded that the foreign currency reserve should not be smaller than it is now. The European Central Bank, ECB, has also recently issued an opinion recommending that Sweden should not reduce the size of its foreign currency reserve below the current level. 10  The foreign currency reserve should be paid for by the banks The cost – or insurance premium – of having a liquidity insurance in the form of a foreign currency reserve is at present charged to the Riksbank’s earnings and central government finances and is calculated at around SEK 400-500 million a year. This is, of course, a lot of money, but calculated per inhabitant per year the insurance premium is only SEK 40-50. This corresponds to around two cups of coffee or half of a cinema ticket. Moreover, it is actually a cost that could well be transferred to the banks, which are the primary beneficiaries of such an insurance. One could say – to take it to an extreme – that tax-payers currently subsidise the banks by almost half a billion a 9 The Government’s draft referral to the Council on Legislation (in Swedish):  http://www.regeringen.se/494cc9/contentassets/c34c52bc62904b2984784e2b94f1e6aa/riksbankensfinansiella-oberoende-och-balansrakning-utkast-till-lagradsremiss The Riksbank’s consultation response: http://www.riksbank.se/en/Press-and-published/PressReleases/2017/Important-to-have-sufficient-foreign-currency-reserve-rapidly-available-in-a-crisis/ Other public authorities’ consultation responses regarding the foreign currency reserve can be found here (in Swedish): http://www.fi.se/sv/publicerat/remissvar/2017/remissvar-pa-utkast-till-lagradsremiss-riksbankensfinansiella-oberoende-och-balansrakning/ and https://www.riksgalden.se/globalassets/dokument_sve/om_riksgalden/remissvar/2017/riksbankens-finansiellaoberoende-och-balansraekning-remissvar.pdf 10 ECB (2017).

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