In April 2008 an official report, SOU (2008:32), was presented. In that report it was suggestedthat the statutory audit for approximately 96 % of the Swedish companies was to be abolished.The report suggests that the new regulations should apply to all limited companies thatare below two of three limits that have been suggested: a) a balance-sheet total of 41,5 millionSEK; b) a net turnover of 83 million SEK or; c) less than 50 employees. The regulations aresuggested to come into force July 1, 2010. According to the Swedish laws that regulate thelimited companies, Aktiebolagslagen 10:11, should all limited companies regardless of sizehave an chartered accountant or otherwise approved. The purpose of the audit is to create atrust towards the figures that the company shows and also to act as an assurance towards thirdparties (Collis, 2003; Strenger et al, 2008).

In recent years, global organizations safeguarding financial stability has started to track commercial property markets. One of the reasons for this refers to the fact that commercial property constitutes a large share of bank lending. Simultaneously, bank exposures to commercial property are extensive and risky since collateral values are strongly correlated to borrowers cash flows. Since banks are viewed to play a key role for financial stability, studying the relationship is well motivated. To better understand how commercial property markets interact with financial stability, this paper develops an econometric model for studying the commercial rental market.

The new accounting standards IFRS and IAS was implemented in January 2005, the purpose was to harmonize accounting standards world wide. As a result of these new rules the real estate companies are allowed to appraise real estates assets at market value. It has long been debated whether this appraisal fulfils the requirements for relevance, reliability and comparability.The paper attends to how banks control the information given by the real estate companies in the process of credit granting. As an introduction we describe the purpose of accounting and the problematic´s about appraisals with market values. Further on there is a discussion on which factors are taken into consideration when banks grant credits.The study is built on interviews at three different Commercial banks.

Background: The regulation of banks is increasing in order to stabilize the financial market. Despite this increase in regulation, financial crises still continue to occur. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is gradually increasing the capital requirements for banks, yet the increase in capital requirements doesn?t seem to solve the problem. This raises the question: how does capital regulation affect banks? Purpose: The purpose of this study is, primarily to illustrate the effects that capital regulation has on risk and efficiency on banks within the European Union, but secondary also study the relationship between risk, efficiency and capital regulation.Method: To achieve the purpose of this study, a deductive approach has been used, where the problem is assumed to be due to an agency problem.

Sustainability is today a current topic and companies are more or less forced to work with it even though it contradicts the historical role of companies, which is to generate a profit for shareholders. In recent years there has been a rising interest from banks to work with sustainability but research has shown a growing dissatisfaction among customers even though banks are spending a lot of money and time working with sustainability. This shows that there is an asymmetry between how the banks act and what their customers demand. The purpose of this paper is to create an understanding of how business customers perceive banks´ CSR-reports by investigating customers? interest in these reports.

Banks are an important institution for the economy of a society. During the later years the world of banking has changed. Several new actors have entered the market and taken over traditional bankservices as well as new ones. The way of conducting banking has changed with the event of new technology. One of the banks customer segments, the students have also been under a change.

Banks are an important institution for the economy of a society. During the later years the world of banking has changed. Several new actors have entered the market and taken over traditional bankservices as well as new ones. The way of conducting banking has changed with the event of new technology. One of the banks customer segments, the students have also been under a change. With a changed market companies have to adapt to the new rules of the game.

The competition has increased with the establishment of the new banks and the credit institutes taking on the market, the big banks are no longer alone on the market.In speed with the increased range, have also the marketing and the recruit of new bank customers become more driven.Bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language, is a segment with potential which doesn?t get used by the banks and in turn of that the bank customers doesn?t get their needs satisfied.The purpose with this survey was to analyze if the four largest banks, Föreningssparbanken, Handelsbanken, Nordea and SEB had prepared strategies that were directed to bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language. In those cases the banks had strategies, respective measures were presented.Furthermore the bank customers with lacks in the Swedish language were studied if they experienced that the banks were using measures to satisfy their language needs in contact with the banks and presented the benefit of them.The information about the banks strategies was assembled through interviews with persons from each bank. The bank customers experience was assembled through a questionnaire survey.The result showed that the banks hade different strategies for reaching out to these customers, it was from showing understanding to multicultural offices. Half of the customers appreciated that the banks pressured themselves for them by being patient, explained the services and in some cases had staff that could several language.

Small business enterprises have escalated in Sweden during the last decade. However, new established companies are struggling to maintain their selves during the startup process and according to a survey from Tillväxtanalys, only 68 % of startup companies from 2008 were still active three years later. One of the main reasons is lack of capital and the most common approach to finance companies is to apply for a bank loan. In other words, Commercial banks are of great importance for new businesses. Although, the problem arises when there is no previous history from the new businesses that the bank could base its credit assessment on.

This thesis investigates the 200 year old phenomena of savings banks and if they increase the economic growth (GDP) in the local region they act in. That is being done by testing three hypotheses; the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the region they act in; the savings banks increase the entrepreneurship in the region they act in; and the savings banks increase the economic growth in region they act in. This quantitative cross-sectional study with data from the year 2010, finds that the savings banks increase the attractiveness of the local region, most likely through the efforts and financials they put into different local projects. A positive result is also found for increased entrepreneurship in the regions that have a local savings bank. The result is explained by the savings banks relationship lending, which increase the likeliness for a company to get the credit they need to start and develop.

The concepts of environmental scanning and Business Intelligence have gained increased interest over the last years in a number of different organisational contexts. The research in this field has mainly been dealing with methods and issues regarding organisation but the aim of environmental scanning, the forming of new perspectives, has been largely ignored. The purpose of this thesis is to study how Swedish joint-stock banks put environmental scanning and Business Intelligence into practice. First a literature study is made to create a background and to explain the different conceptions. Then I describe the different functions of the different services in Swedish joint-stock banks.

In commercial firms, the inventory is often the largest and most important entry and to have acorrectly valued inventory is an important prerequisite in the statement of accounts. However,the inventory is considered to be one of the entries that are most difficult to value among thecompanies assets and this is why we have investigated how large commercial firms valuetheir inventories. We have used relevant theory and conducted a number of interviews withpeople who are knowledgeable when it comes to valuation of inventories. Our conclusion isthat commercial firms work in different ways and that there is no general method which isused by all commercial companies..

Background and problem: The importance of banks was clearly shown during the last financial crises, when the crises that started in the banking sector spread to the rest of the world. This is one of the reasons that this thesis is focused on banks in particular, one other reason is that a lot of previous studies has chosen to exclude banks because of the fact that their balance sheet differ from non-financial companies. This thesis is a beginning in filling in the gap that exists in the knowledge of banks capital structure. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that it is possible to explain the capital structure in banks and that differences in the capital structure of the banks in Great Britain, Sweden and the United states of America exists. Method: The fact that our study is partly a replication of two earlier studies made a deductive approach most appropriate.

The financial crisis in the beginning of the 1990´s the financial crisis had a strong impact on the Swedish economy. Some of the main actors in the crisis were the largest banks of Sweden which brought a huge amount of losses on themselves. One of the main reasons for this was that the banks focused on volume increases rather than on credit losses. The credit analysis process is performed differently these days and it is the development of this process that is the focus for the authors.This thesis is about the credit analysis process in the four largest banks of Sweden. The purpose of the thesis is to highlight which factors the banks include in the credit analysis process and in how small and medium size companies are treated in this process.

The first official Islamic bank was established in 1975. The characteristic of an Islamic bank is that the bank is based on an interest free system. The interest free system is a requirement for an Islamic bank. The Islamic bank system is based on Sharia laws which are laws that are followed by Muslims and it is based on the text from the Quran. The Islamic Banks had a rapid expansion between 1993 and 2003, the expansion was about 23 percent and since 2003 have the expansion been about 20 percent.