The Implementation of Reverse Mortgage in Sweden : A Financial Institution Perspective

• Main Authors: Setterqvist, Viktor, Bergman, Jacob
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Umeå universitet, Företagsekonomi 2013
• Subjects: consumption pattern; credit; exploratory study; finance; financial institution; home equity; loan; real estate; retirees; reverse mortgage; savings; Sweden
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-85355

The purpose of this research is to understand and describe the causes affecting the financial institutions’ implementation of reverse mortgage in Sweden as well as the consequences of a large scale implementation, shedding some new light upon the issue of reverse mortgages. This was done from a financial institution point of view. As existent literature in this field of research is currently small in extent, especially in a Swedish context where almost no academic literature has been written, it serves as an exploratory research. From a researcher’s point of view it could hopefully give interesting insights on how new financial products are implemented in general, shedding some light on possible difficulties that may arise during these processes. The research was designed using a qualitative research method. In order to investigate the issues presented several individuals were interviewed from different financial institutions offering various kinds of reverse mortgages in Sweden. Interviews were semi-structured and only the six financial institutions that offer reverse mortgage in Sweden were included. The findings made, as well as the interview questions, were divided into several different sections adopted from the theoretical framework so as make the research more comprehensible and stringent. Because the research design is of exploratory nature it evolved over time, as the authors did not know initially what they would find. The findings provided many interesting insights that were not thought of before. Three major themes were found that could help explain the causes affecting the financial institutions’ implementation of reverse mortgage in Sweden as well as the consequences of a large scale implementation. These themes were age, generation, mentality, macro economical factors, and financial institutions offering reverse mortgage.