With credit ratings on negative outlook, Swedish car manufacturer Volvo chose a hybrid issue to smooth the road ahead.

Lars Millberg, head of transaction banking at SEB's merchant banking division, discusses the importance of innovation, and describes the bank's unique approach to encouraging out-of-the-box thinking among its employees.

It may not be part of the struggling eurozone but Sweden is suffering its very own Europe-related problems. Its finance minister, Anders Borg, tells The Banker why he does not want the UK to leave the EU, what difficulties could be posed by the formation of a banking union and where the responsibility for bailing out banks should lie.

Tighter bank financing, falling government subsidies and rising US shale gas production are all putting the squeeze on the renewable energy industry.

Issuing in Europe in 2011 has been a hazardous task, but Com Hem's highly leveraged buyout bridge underwritten by joint mandated lead arranger Goldman Sachs managed to defy the odds, thanks in no small part to the diverse elements of the deal.

The Swedish economy has bounced back well from the crisis, with banks among the main beneficiaries. Leading bankers at three of the country's biggest banks - Nordea, Swedbank and Handelsbanken - explain how they have achieved such impressive results. 

The aggressive increase in residential and commercial real estate lending in the three Baltic states by Swedbank and SEB has left the two institutions painfully exposed to the market crash. Robert Anderson reports