IN 1992 SWEDEN nationalised (and subsequently merged) two banks: Gota Bank and Nordbanken, which was already mostly owned by the state. As in America 15 years later, property prices had first boomed and then plunged, bringing banks down with them. In 2001 Nordbanken was combined with Danish, Norwegian and Finnish lenders to create Nordea, the region's biggest bank. It was not until September 2013 that the Swedish government sold its last shares in Nordea, finally drawing a line under a crisis by then 20 years in the past.
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