Fed Looking at Nordic Model for Nationalization of Banks

The Telegraph reports that the Fed has been in touch with various Nordic central banks regarding their experience with their own banking crises in the early 1990s (Telegraph). These countries used various models to nationalize their banks, later looking to reprivatize these institutions. Two of Norway's top banks, Christiania Bank and Fokus, were seized by the government. Shareholders got nothing, and senior management was purged. Apparently the nation's laws were amended to allow regulators to take over any bank where its equity had fallen below zero. In Sweden, the law was changed to allow the Riksbank to seize banks where the capital adequacy ratio had fallen below 2%.

Really puts the Bear deal in perspective. Shareholders and JPM made out while the government lost.