SBAB has a particularly large proportion of customers who have applied for amortization since the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority temporarily took up the amortization requirement due to the corona crisis. This is because SBAB has a larger proportion of new mortgage borrowers in relation to the country's four major banks, and since the repayment requirement is aimed at new mortgages, the proportion is higher here.

In the four major banks, the proportion of mortgage borrowers who applied for amortization was between a couple and four percent.

- We have a great demand for amortization freedom among our customers, about 12,500 customers so far. This corresponds to SEK 20 billion in mortgages and around 7 percent of all our mortgage customers, says Klas Danielsson, CEO of SBAB.

Therefore, the requirement is eased

Finansinspektionen's purpose in easing the repayment requirements has been to alleviate the effects for mortgage borrowers who have in some way or are suffering from or are at risk of the corona crisis. Nevertheless, many mortgage borrowers seem to be thinking about amortization freedom, but may not, for that matter, be particularly worried about getting rid of their employment.

- We did a survey very recently and asked quite a few of our customers how to look at the future and amortization relief, and then there were quite a few who intended to seek amortization relief because they were afraid to get rid of the job, says Klas Danielsson.

"Better savings to pay off"

In most savings economists, however, the Council seems to be reluctant to apply for amortization freedom if one does not really need this to meet their expenses, for example in the event of unemployment. It is a better saving to amortize than to spend the money on something else, they believe.

- It is a very good crisis measure and I think it should be used by those households that have really been hit financially by corona or who are in danger of being hit in the future. But for those households where you do not notice any difference in income, I do not think that you should stop amortizing just because the opportunity exists, says Johanna Kull, savings economist at Avanza bank.