Market Profiles

RBC IS operates an omnibus account structure in this market.

For further information or support around accessing this market, please contact your RBC IS representative.

Nasdaq Stockholm AB
This is the major Swedish stock exchange for the trading of shares in Swedish and foreign companies, long and short term bonds, money market instruments, warrants, derivatives and exchange traded funds. Nasdaq Stockholm offers trading in a number of Norwegian equities with CCP clearing in EuroCCP N.V. and with settlement of net transaction versus EuroCCP in the Norwegian CSD.

The Nasdaq OMX Nordic is the integrated Nordic marketplace, offering customers access to 80% of the Nordic securities markets and includes the stock exchanges in Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki and Iceland. 

A part of the Nasdaq OMX Nordic exchange is also First North which is an alternative marketplace for small growth companies. Companies admitted to trading at First North are given the same possibilities as large companies but the regulations are lighter. It does not have the legal status as an EU-regulated market place. Companies at First North are subject to the rules of First North and not the legal requirements for admission to trading on a regulated market.

Sweden has two additional authorised exchanges part from NASDAX OMX: 

NGM (Nordic Growth Market)
NGM is an Exchange under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority. NGM offers listing and trading on the NGM Equity list and trading in derivatives on the Nordic Derivatives Exchange (NDX). It also operates Nordic MTF, an unregulated market for trading in companies not yet officially listed.

INET is Nasdaq OMX core technology used across NASDAQ OMX's U.S. and European markets. Today it powers NASDAQ OMX's U.S. equities and options platforms including The NASDAQ Stock Market, NASDAQ OMX BX, NASDAQ OMX PHLX, The NASDAQ OMX Options Market, and NASDAQ OMX Europe. INET was rolled out on NASDAQ OMX's Nordic and Baltic markets on February 8, 2010.

Further information about NASDAQ OMX's trading systems can be found here:

http://www.nasdaqomx.com/technology

Other systems include Genium INET for Fixed Income (replaced SAXESS in June 2011) and Genium INET for Derivatives (replaced Click October 2010), used for trading derivatives (stock options, futures).

For the NGM markets please see:
Trading Hours

ISIN (International Securities Identification Numbering): Yes

Other: N/A

The Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen):
Finansinspektionen is the public authority that is responsible for authorising, monitoring and supervising all companies operating in Swedish financial markets. It is the central governmental body for surveillance of institutions on the securities markets, including banks, securities companies, fund managers, exchanges, clearing institutions and Euroclear Sweden (the CSD). 
Finansinspektionen examines the risks and control systems in financial companies and supervises compliance with statutes, ordinances and other regulations. They also grant financial services permits, and issue regulations and general guidelines, as well as assessing necessary amendments of legislation. Finansinspektionenfurthermore supervises compliance with the Swedish Insider Act and investigate cases of suspected offences and share price manipulations. 

Nasdaq Stockholm AB (Stockholmsbörsen): the Market Surveillance department of Stockholmsbörsen monitors exchange members' compliance with trading rules, and checks volumes and prices to market movements, which could affect investor confidence.

Riksbank (the Central Bank of Sweden) 
The Swedish central bank, Sveriges Riksbank (the Riksbank), is an authority under the Swedish Parliament. It is responsible for Sweden's monetary policy and has overall responsibility for the stability of the payment system. All banks and cash clearing organisations (Bankgirocentralen, the Euroclear Sweden AB and Nasdaq Stockholm), maintain an account at the Central Bank of Sweden. The central bank is responsible for cash settlement between banks through its RIX system, as well as for accepting deposits and granting credits from/to banks. 

The Central Bank of Sweden is regulated by the Sveriges Riksbank Act (SFS 1988:1385). On January 1, 1999, this act was amended and signed ratifying the central bank's independence. The Central Bank of Sweden's Executive Board now reports directly to the Parliament.

All listed shares are issued in dematerialised form, and registered at Euroclear Sweden AB, the Swedish central securities depository.

Government bonds are registered instruments that are held in dematerialised form at Euroclear Sweden AB.

N/A

NB the off exchange trading of equities is based on a T to T+3 settlement cycle

SEK & EUR

Swedish intermediaries are allowed to trade around the clock and are not confined to the standard trading hours.

Dematerialised Securities: all deliveries and receipts are processed through Euroclear Sweden. Matching is done on SD-2 or SD-1 when the instructions of the client are inserted in the settlement and clearing system at Euroclear Sweden. Matching on S is possible. Euroclear Sweden offers an automatic partial settlement process in the AM sub-market and remain as a manual possibility in the PM sub-market. 

Settlement takes place in batches that occur throughout the day:
PM submarket: 08:00, 10:00, 12:00 and 15:30 CET for free and versus payment and 17:00 for free of payment only.
AM submarket: 10:00, 12:00 and 15:30 hrs. CET for free and versus payment and 17:00 for free of payment only.

Partial settlement will be performed by a splitting process, whereby the failing instruction is cancelled and replaced by two new split instructions based on the original instruction. There are a number of fixed partial settlement windows during the day; 09:30, 11:30, 12:30 (SEK only), 13:30, 14:30, 15:15 and 16:30 only applicable to free of payment instructions.

After the implementation of the NewClear settlement and clearing system with Euroclear Sweden, the settlement process is no longer dependent on a simultaneous regulation of accounts in the RIX system in order to be implemented. Ownership is transferred at the moment of settlement. After settlement, Euroclear Sweden calculates the net payment and the clearing member's net cash amount is received/paid at RIX, the clearing system of the Swedish central bank.

Physical Securities: Sweden is a dematerialised market where securities are kept in book-entry form in Euroclear Sweden. Physical securities are extremely rare, and all securities traded and settled by foreign investors are kept in electronic form. 

A settlement penalty fee will apply to matched instructions failing to settle on the settlement date under the CSDR penalty regime.

Failed trades

Penalty fees were introduced in the Swedish market to assist with improving the settlement efficiency in the market under the CSDR panlty regime.  Euroclear Sweden also monitor the settlement efficiency reports generated and in case the total failed value in the market is above 2 BSEK for a specific day they and the settlement ratio is below 90% they will request further information from the failing counterparty should their settlement rate be below 90% and for any large value failing trade over SEK10MM. Depending on the response received from that counterparty information will be sent to the Swedish FSA.

Short selling is allowed. However, you have to have the deliver capacity on contractual settlement day. Using short selling to unlawfully influence the price of a security is prohibited through the regulation contained in the Market Abuse Penalties Act (SFS 2005:377).

Short Selling Regulation entered into force November 1, 2012 and applies to all natural and legal persons whether residing or established within or outside the European Union. Sweden has not previously had any restrictions or reporting obligations in respect of short selling. 

The regulation consists of three main parts, namely:

• new reporting obligations for significant net short positions in EU shares and EU sovereign debt (taking into account thereto related financial instruments)
• restrictions on naked (uncovered) short selling of EU shares and EU sovereign debt
• a near-total ban on EU sovereign debt CDS, absent a correlated long position
• stricter failed settlement and buy-in procedures for CCPs.

For full information of the new regulation and reporting requirements please visit the European Securities and Markets Authority website athttp://www.esma.europa.eu/.

The Swedish settlement system facilitates turnaround trades. There are no specific market requirements. Short selling is possible, but any short positions should be covered prior to settlement.

Euroclear Sweden operates the VPC system were clearing of equities and money market instruments along with certain CSD eligible derivatives, such as warrants, takes place.
Nasdaq Stockholm AB is part of NASDAQ OMX Nordic together with NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen, Helsinki and Iceland. A wide variety of products are traded; e.g. equities, equity rights, convertible loans, subscription options, premium bonds, retail bonds, ETFs, warrants. Non CSD eligible derivates are as of September 3, 2013, traded and cleared through a separate legal entity, NASDAQ OMX Clearing AB.

In October 2009 Nasdaq OMX introduced CCP clearing in Sweden for equities listed on OMXS30 And Large Cap. In February 2015 Nasdaq expanded the scope to also include CCP clearing for securities listed on Mid Cap. The current CCP service providers to the Nasdaq Nordic exchanges areLCH Limited (LCH), CBOE Clear Europe (CBOE) and SIX x-clear Ltd.  Since December 2009, a number of ETFs are also cleared by CCP. Trading in Swedish securities via MTFs, e.g. BATS CHI-X and and Turqouise, is CCP cleared. In November 2015 Nasdaq introduced an additional  CCP clearing provider, LCH.Clearnet Ltd and in addition SIX x-clear was introduced as an additional CCP during February 2017.

Euroclear Sweden AB
Euroclear Sweden is given authorisation by, and is under the supervision and examination of Finansinspektionen. It is the sole central securities depository in Sweden, where securities are de-materialized and kept in book-entry form, and it is responsible for the Swedish securities settlement system. Euroclear Sweden's main operations consist of three parts: registration, clearing operations and account holding.

Main legal framework regulating Euroclear Sweden:

• Financial Instruments Accounts Act (1998:1479)
• Securities Market Act (2007:528)
• Settlement Systems Act (1999:1309)
• Companies Act (2005:551)

BIS is an international organisation which fosters cooperation among central banks and other agencies in pursuit of monetary and financial stability. The Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) uses three common structural approaches, or models, to categorise the links between delivery and payment in a securities settlement system.

BIS Model 1 for Euroclear Sweden DTGS settlements - a system in which there is a simultaneous transfer of securities and associated funds from the buyer to the seller. All transfers occur on a trade-by-trade (gross) basis with all transfers made via book entry. All transfers are final.

Book-Entry: Shares are dematerialised and registered at Euroclear Sweden, the CSD.

Physical: The majority of securities are dematerialised in the Swedish market. There are however a very small number of company certificates that remain physical, although these are not normally of interest to foreign investors. There is no central register for physical certificates.

Euroclear Sweden offers solutions for book-entry based issue of securities in Sweden. Both listed and unlisted securities and securities listed on other stock exchanges can be registered in Euroclear Sweden.

Securities are automatically and immediately registered during settlement. Change of ownership legally occurs on actual settlement date.

Substantial shareholder reporting as well as insider reporting is the responsibility of the investor. Investors must ensure that they comply in full by reporting such holdings to the appropriate organisations for this market, within the timeframe required. If you have any questions regarding this issue we encourage you to consult your legal counsel. 

Failure to comply with reporting requirements may lead to penalties and/or other sanctions.

Shareholders, in conjunction with a triggering transaction, must notify both the issuing company and Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority), when a shareholding reaches a prescribed level. Finansinspektionen will then publish the information. 

Finansinspektionen must be informed no later than the trading day after the transaction was completed, when ownership meets, exceeds or falls below the 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 50, 66 (2/3), and 90% thresholds for voting rights or number of shares in the company. 

When a shareholder exceeds 10% of a holding in a company the shareholder is also regarded as an insider according to the rules in The Act (2000:1087) On Reporting Duty for Certain Holdings of Financial Instruments. According to this regulation all changes in insiders holdings must be reported to the FSA. This means that when reaching a position of ten per cent, a shareholder falls under two separate disclosure regulations.

Buy-ins for bi-laterally cleared and settled on-exchange trades are regulated by Nasdaq OMX Nordic member rules, and conducted between the Buying and the Selling Member. Please see the below link for further information:

Nasdaq OMX Buy-in Guidelines

For CCP-cleared on-exchange trades, the CBOE Clear Europe (CBOE) handles any buy-ins in accordance with its rules. The buy-in procedure will take place on the fourth business date after settlement, with execution on Intended Settlement Date + 5, in order to achieve delivery of shares for settlement purposes.

A settlement penalty fee will apply on matched instructions failing to settle on the settlement date. This penalty fee will only be charged on CCP cleared transactions under the CSDR regime.

In addition new late settlement fees will be introduced. There will be two cost elements for the failing delivery party; a fixed fee and a variable cost:
The fixed fee for the failing party will be €25 per day per failing settlement position. The variable cost will be 100bp per annum charged on a daily basis for the value of the failing settlement position. Please see the below link for further information: EuroCCP Buy-in Procedure and Fees and Penalties

Please be advised that generally there are no buy in rules for a standard OTC settlement.

Securities borrowing and lending is permitted and frequently used in the Swedish Market.

Euroclear Sweden AB does not offer a securities lending facility itself. However, commercial banks and other market participants offer securities lending and borrowing facilities, mainly involving Swedish equities. Use of these lending facilities is market practice to cover short on-exchange deliveries. Securities lending and borrowing is not common for fixed income instruments.

There are no special guarantees in place in the Swedish market covering bankruptcy of a market participant, such as guarantee funds etc. 

To protect the investor there are regulations in the market to force companies providing investment services, credit institutions, the financial market, mutual fund companies and issuers to fulfil certain obligations. These include, among others, requirement of valid licenses to practice business, investor protection rules and the obligation of notification of relevant information by issuing companies. Regulations and monitoring of insider trading also protect the investor. 

If deposited securities are lost while under the control of our Bank, the Bank will be under an obligation to pay compensation if it has failed to exercise proper care when handling such securities in its custody. With regard to securities lodged with Euroclear Sweden, the law prescribes independent liability for loss. Should Nasdaq Stockholm or Euroclear Sweden go bankrupt, this will not affect our investor's trades or holdings, as neither of such at any time are registered under the name of Stock Exchange or Euroclear Sweden.

The Investor Compensation Scheme is compensating for losses of financial instruments that belong to an investor and which was at disposal to a securities firm in connection with the carrying out of an investment service. The Scheme is also covering funds that a securities firm has accepted with accountability, in connection with the carrying out of an investment service. The compensation is maximum SEK250,000.

Information about investor protection according to the Act on Investor Compensation Scheme
The Act on the Investor Compensation Scheme complies with the EC-directive on this matter (97/9/EC). In the event of a bank's or a securities company's insolvent liquidation, a protection applies in accordance with the Act as regards financial instruments that the bank or the securities company has received on behalf of a customer if the securities have not been kept separated from the bank's or the securities company's own securities. The Scheme also covers liquid funds that the bank or the securities company receives in conjunction with providing an investment service for which it is accountable. The bank or the securities company must held such funds and financial instruments belonging to clients separate from the institution's own assets. Under the protection a customer who is unable to obtain his financial instruments or liquid funds has the right to compensation in a total amount not exceeding SEK 250,000. A client who wishes to claim compensation must within one year of the date of the bankruptcy declaration, present the claim to the Swedish National Debt Office (Sw: Riksgälden). A securities institution that belongs to the Investor Compensation Scheme can not obtain compensation from the Scheme.

Since securities normally are recoverable upon bankruptcy, the Act will be applicable only in certain situations, i.e. if securities were not been properly separated from the assets of SEB or if the securities were not properly recorded in the books and records of SEB.

Since securities normally are recoverable upon bankruptcy, the Act will be applicable only in certain situations, i.e. if securities were not been properly separated from the assets of the bank or if the securities were not properly recorded in the books and records of the bank.

A securities institution that belongs to the investor compensation scheme can not obtain compensation from the scheme.

Information about the Deposit Guarantee Scheme according to the Act on Deposit Guarantee Scheme
The Act on the Deposit-Guarantee Scheme is based on the EC-directive on this matter (94/19/EC) as amended by EC-directive 2009/14/EC, and contains provisions for a guarantee scheme for deposits with banks and certain securities enterprises. The total compensation from each institution per client (and not per account) exceeds to a maximum of the amount in SEK equivalent to EUR 100, 000 at the date when the right to compensation occurs. The right to compensation shall commence when an institution is declared bankrupt or when Finansinspektionen has decided that a right of compensation exists or the competent authority in the domicile country of a foreign institution declares that the deposits with that institution are unavailable. The Swedish National Debt Office pays the compensation within 20 business days of the date on which the bank was declared bankrupt or Finansinspektionen (the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority) ordered the guarantee to commence. The Deposit-Guarantee-Scheme is mandatory for Swedish banks and Swedish securities companies licensed to receive deposits from clients into an account. A deposit with a Swedish institution within Sweden or a branch of a Swedish institution in another Member State within EEA shall be covered by the Guarantee-Scheme. An institutional depositor that is permitted to accept and hold customers' money in accounts is not eligible for compensation from the Deposit-Guarantee Scheme. 

More information about the deposit insurance and the investor compensation is to be found on the Swedish National Debt Office's website,www.riksgalden.se/en/aboutsndo/.

Swedish legislation

• Act (2009:62) on Measures against Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (Lagen (2009:62) om åtgärder mot penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism)
• Ordinance (2009:92) regarding measures against money laundering and financing of particularly serious crime (Förordningen (2009:92) om åtgärder mot penningtvätt och finansiering av särskilt allvarlig brottslighet i vissa fall)
• Act (2002:444) regarding measures against financing of particularly serious crime in certain circumstances (Lagen (2002:444) om straff för finansiering av särskilt allvarlig brottslighet i vissa fall, m.m.)

Swedish FSA regulations

• Regulations and general guidelines concerning measures against money laundering and financing of terrorism (Finansinspektionens föreskrifter och allmänna råd (FFFS 2009:1) om åtgärder mot penningtvätt och finansiering av särskilt allvarlig brottslighet i vissa fall)

EU Regulations 
The EU has issued three directives to prevent its financial systems from being used for money laundering or the financing of terrorist activities. The current rules in Sweden on money laundering are based on the third directive, which was implemented in Sweden March 2009.(AML3, is based on FATF 40+9 recommendations)

Please find enclosed SEB's Instruction for Anti Money Laundering.

None.

The Financial Supervisory Authority reserves the right to review and approve or reject bank holdings by non-residents and residents alike which exceed 10%, 20%, 30% or 50% of the shares (capital or voting).

Income, capital gains or capital can be repatriated freely.

N/A

Swedish krona (SEK) settlements take place at the Riksbank, the central bank of Sweden. Payments are settled in the RIX system, which is owned and operated by the Riksbank. As for euro (EUR) Sweden is not a member of TARGET2. However, Swedish banks participate in TARGET2 via arrangements with Central banks in EUR countries. In addition, many Swedish banks participate in EBA clearing. 

Participants in the RIX system are not required to be domiciled or have a branch in Sweden for participation in RIX. The Riksbank makes demands of the participants; an institution must meet certain conditions to be accepted as a participant. Special conditions apply for monetary and exchange rate policy counterparties. Details are published under:

http://www.riksbank.com/templates/Page.aspx?id=26681

The RIX system operates on the principle of Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). Communication in RIX takes place via SWIFT. Participants have an on-line access to the RIX system, allowing them to monitor the status of their payments and the balance on their RIX account.

Operating hours are from 07:00 until 17:00 for RIX. 

Interbank and customer payments take place via the banks' RIX accounts, either on a trade-by-trade basis or on a net basis, depending on the system used.

Payments that settle on a net basis are administered by clearing organisations. There are several clearing organisations in the Swedish securities market, the two most important of which are: the Bankgirocentralen and Euroclear Sweden, the Swedish central securities depository.

Payments are final once the amount of money is transferred from one RIX account to another. Same-day value dating is standard practice.

Yes.

Proposed dividend is announced in the annual report or the Q1 interim report from the company. The annual report/announcement is made approximately two months before the AGM. Listed companies are required to inform the market. Unlisted companies do not have any requirements as to when or how they need to publish the dividend information, but it is usually provided together with the annual report. 

The most common form of income on equities is cash dividends. Alternatives to cash dividends, such as stock dividends and dividend reinvestment plans, are not applicable in Sweden. Dividends can be paid either in SEK or in EUR. 

Record date is always one day after ex date and payment date is three days after record date for SEK and five days for EUR. Actual credit is made to client's account on pay date provided subcustodian received the funds from the Swedish CSD (Euroclear Sweden)

Swedish companies pay dividend on annual basis, but extraordinary payments may occur. The issuing company reserves the cash on their cash account early on payment date and the CSD makes a withdrawal of the cash on the same day and transfers it to all shareholder/nominee account holders.

Dividends are usually paid on an annual basis. For depository receipts, dividends are paid on various frequencies depending on where the share is listed.

Interest on government bonds is usually paid on an annual basis. Other Swedish issuers pay on a quarterly or semi annual basis.

Interest, whether paid in SEK or EUR, is based on settled holdings at Euroclear Sweden on record date. Record date is generally five business days prior to payment date.

30/360-day basis for medium to long-term issues and treasury bills with maturities of less than one year. 
Interest in floating rate bonds accrues on an actual/360-day basis.

Entitlements to corporate events are based on holdings at Euroclear Sweden on record date. The record date is set at the discretion of the issuer. Following the T+2 settlement cycle, ex-date is one business day prior to record date.

Protection of rights as such is not applicable on the Swedish market. However, rights follow the parent trade in any pending cum-rights trades in the parent line on record date. Should a cum-entitlement trade be still pending on the last subscription date or should the seller be able to deliver the shares in the parent line but is unable to deliver the rights to the buyer by the last subscription date, the seller and the buyer must agree between themselves on any action to be taken.

Foreign investors have full voting rights. Complex registration and power of attorney requirements make voting rights difficult to execute.

No

The notice to attend an AGM should be made public to the shareholders “...at the earliest six weeks, and at the latest four weeks prior to the AGM” (according to Swedish Company Law of 1999). Extraordinary general meetings are announced at least 14 days in advance.

A confirmation of executed votes and a meeting press release are issued to clients by their custodian.

Available on the website of each company.

Required. The period of validity can now be up to five years (as opposed to one year as was previously the case). A period of validity other than one year must be stated on the PoA as the PoA will be valid for one year unless otherwise stated.

Proxy information is limited to Swedish companies listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. Shares are temporarily reregistered in the name of the beneficial owner five business days prior to the meeting. Voting privileges can be revoked by the company if documentation is incomplete.

30% withholding tax

N/A

Foreign investors do not pay any withholding tax on interest payments. 

No capital gain tax for foreign investors.

*The treaty rate at source is not possible for Swiss residents for tax purposes. Only normal reclaim procedure is possible.

Not applicable

Not applicable

Sweden Holiday Calendar

• Nasdaq Stockholm: nasdaqomxnordic.com
• Nordic Growth Market: ngm.se
• Aktietorget (Equities Market Place): aktietorget.se
• Riksbank riksbank.se
• Euroclear Sweden: euroclear.eu
• Swedish Securities Markets Association (Föreningen Svensk Värdepappersmarknad) fondhandlarna.se
• Financial Supervisory Authority fi.se