Stockholm is Europe’s new capital of capital

Illustration: Satoshi Kambayashi

Dec 3rd 2025|4 min read

Ask a European banker how to reinvigorate their continent’s capital markets, and there is a good chance they will start enthusing about Sweden. That might seem surprising, since during the post-Brexit scramble to replace London as Europe’s premier financial centre, Stockholm barely got a look-in. Frankfurt, home to the euro zone’s central bank, seemed the obvious choice; its competition came from Paris’s mighty commercial banks. Honourable mention went to Amsterdam, reprising its 17th-century role as a share-trading hub.