over time and that those who do reduce them very slowly. i find this situation worrying. it is not mainly those with high incomes and those who can be assumed to have considerable wealth that have the largest debts in relation to their incomes. to a rather large extent it appears to be those who probably have less financial scope to manage potential shocks. this poses risks to the development of the real economy, but also to the stability of the financial system, especially in the light of the vulnerabilities that we see in the swedish financial system in general. i firmly believe that measures are needed in several areas to create long - term sustainability. this is a question of wide - ranging measures to increase resilience in the financial system, but also of targeted measures to reduce the risks relating to household debt. it is important that the discussion does not drag on – measures are needed now. i hope that the basis for analysis that the riksbank is now presenting will help those concerned to make good decisions on the required measures. bis central bankers ’ speeches

lending to the swedish household sector and are also closely interlinked in that they have similar exposures. the major swedish banks fund about half of their operations on the capital markets of which a substantial part is in foreign currency. in simple terms this means that more than one of bis central bankers ’ speeches every two krona that are lent to swedish households is ultimately governed by conditions that are set by anonymous capital managers in sweden or elsewhere in the world. moreover, approximately half of the banks ’ funding consists of covered bonds which are partly held by foreign investors and partly by the other major swedish banks. all in all, this means that developments on the mortgage market in sweden are not only important to individual banks but also to the banking sector as a whole. if the providers of the banks ’ market funding were to lose confidence in the banks, or in the situation on the mortgage market, the price of funding could increase and access to funding decrease. this would entail higher interest rates for households and perhaps also for companies, depending on the ability of the banks to parry such a situation. it is therefore vital that our financial system is resilient and inspires confidence, and that the development of household debt is deemed to be sustainable in the long term. we are in a situation in which the development of debt in sweden and the swedish mortgage market are not only matters of importance to us here in sweden but also to international investors. we need measures, and the possibility to follow them up, to ensure a system that is sustainable in the long term as i said earlier, the new data means that we have taken several further steps towards seeing the risks associated with household debt. however, i would like it to make it clear that there is still a long way to go. we still do not have the entire picture. an important area where we need more data is the asset side, where we have information on the overall situation in the household sector but not broken down at the individual and household levels. in order to be able to follow developments it is of course also important to have long, continually updated time series. the analysis of the new data that we now have access to shows, all in all, that households in general are highly indebted in relation to their incomes, and this applies above all to low and middle - income earners. it also applies irrespective of where the borrowers live and how old they are. the analysis also shows that many borrowers do not reduce their debts