Thus, even in an economic boom, employers can hold back wage increases without the risk of losing valuable labour. Of course, these changes in wage formation may vary considerably in different economies. But they interact with each other due to the global 2 Read more at: https://www.riksbank.se/sv/finansiell-stabilitet/det-finansiella-systemet/betalningar/  3 The risk of unemployment is one of many factors behind wage expectations. The experience of unpleasant mac-  roeconomic events characterises the behaviour of different age categories, as discussed, for example, by Malmendier and Nagel in “Depression babies: Do macroeconomic experiences affect risk taking?” (The Quarterly Journal of Economics 2011)  3 [5]  market for goods and to a growing part of the service sector also being traded globally. The increase in the number of self-employed people, the many part-time positions and the changed wage composition are factors that tend to crop up as explanations for low wage growth in other economies but which I consider to be less important for understanding wage formation in Sweden. On the other hand, what is special for Sweden is that we have become many more on the labour market. The number of persons between 15 and 74 in the labour force increased by just over half a million between 2006 and 2016. This increase is largely due to high immigration but the labour force is also growing due to changed rules and reforms on the labour market and to tax, benefits and pension rules.
Instead, I’d like to focus on some of the more awkward questions which confront us as a regulator with prudential and competition objectives. Five years on from the introduction of our competition objective it’s a natural moment to do this. But before turning to those questions, I have to ask you to indulge me for a few moments in picking out what to me are the most significant things we have done to advance our secondary competition objective during the first five years of its existence. I will limit myself to three:   First, the structures we have put in place to encourage the entry of new banks: our New Banks Unit, which engages with prospective new entrants and provides a nursery for newly authorised banks; our ‘mobilisation phase’ which allows new banks to get going in a live environment but before being released into the wild; and our ‘wind-down’ approach to setting PRA buffer requirements for new banks in order to avoid penalising early stage growth. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we’ve authorised 17 new UK banks in such a short period.1    Second, bank capital. I have long been troubled by the difference between some standardised and modelled capital requirements, particularly for mortgages. And there are remaining tensions on capital which I will come back to.